SSI Archives

From Beach Cottage to Beach Hotel

More from the Island Memoirs of Francis Peabody McKay

Between the 1890s and 1934, the Peabody family of Waycross, Georgia, spent thirty-six summers in their frame cottage in the Waycross Colony next to the St. Simons Lighthouse. This tradition was broken only once: in the summer of 1911.

Frances’s younger sister had been born in March of that year, and her recently widowed mother was still recovering from the delivery. Frances’s grandfather decided that the primitive housekeeping conditions of the Colony might be too much for both his daughter and his frail wife, so he rented a roomy cottage with maid service on the grounds of the elegant new St. Simons Hotel.

The hotel was one and half miles down the beach from the Colony (in the vicinity of present day Massengale Park). Frances and her brothers were fascinated by the hotel’s trolley car, which ran on a track out to the end of the pier to meet ferries from Brunswick. When the Peabody family arrived in 1911, the hotel porter in a ‘fancy red suit’ put their bags on the trolley for the trip over sand dunes to the imposing structure with wide verandas. A boardwalk connected the hotel to their rented cottage.

Frances soon discovered that oppressive restrictions offset the amenities of the hotel. Feet had to be washed regularly so that sand would not be tracked onto the polished floors of the cottage. Frances was required to dress like a “little lady,” even when she went swimming! Her first “store bought” bathing suit was trimmed with silk braid and had bloomers beneath it. She also had to wear red stockings with garters and an expensive rubber bathing cap, which was too tight when she “tried to wad my thick braid up under it.” She lost both of her new stockings the first day, and the bathing cap gave her a headache.

The final blow came when Frances was called in from play at 6 o’clock on the first day and found her Sunday outfit, complete with stockings and shoes, laid out on her bed. She suddenly realized that she would have to dress for dinner every night! “No slipping into a sleeveless shift and sticking bare feet under the table to eat fried mullet with our fingers.” Eventually Frances was saved from this inconvenience when her brother Walton cut his foot on a shell. Unable to wear shoes, he was given permission to dine on the back porch of the hotel with the family servant Minnie and the hotel employees. There he could eat fried chicken with his fingers and have a second helping of ice cream and cake. After much pestering, Frances’s mother gave in and allowed Frances and her brother Elbert to join him.

At the end of the summer, the Peabody children made their grandfather promise that they would never spend another summer away from “our beloved Waycross Colony.”

Since its founding in 1965, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society’s archival collection has grown to over 15,000 historically important artifacts, documents and photographs.

ABOVE: The new St. Simons Hotel, built in 1910, replaced the first St. Simons Hotel, which opened in 1888 and burned in 1898. INSET: Rocking on the cool veranda of the new St. Simons Hotel, circa 1910. The hotel was also destroyed by fire in 1916.

Our monthly images on this page are from the vast archives of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. The Society’s mission includes the “administration, restoration and maintenance of historic facilities and resources … preserved as a living part of the historical and cultural foundations of our coastal community.” Society facilities include the St. Simons Lighthouse and Museum, the A.W. Jones Heritage Center, and the Maritime Center (formerly the U.S. Coast Guard Station). To learn more about the Society, its diverse programs, and the benefits of Society membership, please call (912) 638.4666, or visit www.saintsimonslighthouse.org.

COMBINING OLD WORLD CHARM WITH MODERN ELEGANCE ...

UNPARALLELED.

Villa de Sueños

Oceanfront Vacation Home Available for Rental Long Weekend, Weekly or Monthly villadesuenosssi.com 912-230-9923