Wood Walking

Restored breezeway features a different kind of cobblestone BY REBECCA BURNS

For many of us, the word "cobblestone" conjures up misty images of ancient cities with stonepaved winding streets and the clatter of horsedrawn carriages. Those cinematic stereotypes aside, not all streets were paved with stone. For a large part of the 1800s, wooden pavers were commonplace. Wooden blocks, easy to cut in uniform size, proved ideal for paving streets as cities laid out new roadways along grids. In addition to conforming to straight lines, they were quieter, easier on horse hooves, and smoother for cyclists. Today, few wooden streets remain, most replaced by harder, stone-based surfaces.

As the Jekyll Island Club was being developed, most roads leading to and through the resort area were simply cleared dirt, or covered with crushed shells. But when the clubhouse was built in the 1880s, a breezeway, which now runs under an elevated portion of the clubhouse lobby, was constructed adopting the practice of city planners; it was paved with wooden cobbles. "The lore is that the pavers were made of the remnants of building material," says Taylor Davis, historic preservationist with the Jekyll Island Authority. The blocks were mostly cypress, soaked in an oily substance known as creosote to preserve the road.

Over the years, the pavers deteriorated and were replaced with brick and other material. A few years ago, Davis and his team at the JIA began the work of restoring the pavers that remained and recreating the breezeway. They worked with Kaswell Flooring, a Massachusetts-based firm that specializes in wood floors. For three generations, the Kaswells have installed floors in projects as wide-ranging as the Gates Foundation in Seattle, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, and others in places like Paris, Dublin, and London.

Davis and his team worked with Norman Kaswell, the flooring firm’s technical services director, and came up with a plan that included new blocks that reflected the grain and texture of the original cypress pavers. The restored breezeway includes three courses (the edging in paved work) of the original pavers. The new version was designed with a slight rise in the center to allow water to run off to help preserve the wood.

The restored walkway is known as the Cypress Breezeway. It's marked by a bronze plaque recounting its history.

"This was a detail we did not want to fade away," Davis says. "It’s a small piece of the landscaping, but we heard from so many who remembered this from early visits to Jekyll. It’s really neat to see it returned."

Fiery Flower

Indian Blanket a natural warm-weather wonder

BY TESS MALONE

Indian Blanket flowers radiate waves of scarlet across Jekyll Island starting in late spring, and are fully aflame by mid-summer. Reminiscent of Native American blanket patterns, the wildflower is a talisman in native folklore. A chief's wife, as the legend goes, wove a red and orange blanket as a prayer for the warrior's safety in battle. When their daughter later was lost in the woods, she woke up covered in red and orange flowers, where the returning chief found her.

Also known as firewheel, the flower's goldtipped petals at one time cloaked Jekyll Island's dunes. Deer, rabbits, and butterflies feast on the flower (Gaillardia pulchella), which actually helps the flowers flourish. Some butterflies use it as a host plant to lay eggs. Bees use firewheel to make amber-hued honey with a buttery taste. The root can be ground into a digestive-soothing tea or emollient cream.

Sandy dry soil in hot, sunny climates is the best environment for home gardeners who want to grow the mostly carefree flower. It's also commonly planted along roadsides and meadows, and on Jekyll's causeway. "It does require frequent deadheading to promote further blooming," says Cliff Gawron, the Jekyll Island Authority's director of landscaping and planning. "It's a very reliable, tough-as-nails plant that readily reseeds itself year after year once it's been established."

Cool WHIPS

Mesmerizing coral forms a teeming underwater colony

BY TESS MALONE

Jekyll Island beachcombers often find tangles of what, at first glance, appear to be strands of rope washed up on the shore. A closer inspection, though, reveals that it's not marine debris or water-logged plants, but one-time living animals with rainbow-colored "branches." It's sea whip coral, a nearshore cold-water coral species found up and down the mid-Atlantic coast. Scuba divers around Jekyll can spot sea whips on pilings in shallow coastal water, marked by fuschia, ruby, golden, vi- olet, and creamsicle-colored fronds. This flexible coral latches onto just about any underwater hard surface, natural or manmade, from rock outcrops and shells to shipwrecks. A large colony of polyps makes up the cylindrical "branches" that are attached to the sea whip's skeleton. Eight tentacles, used for feeding, spring from each polyp. Sea whips are suspension feeders, using those swaying branches to suck up plankton as it floats nearby.

Divers can expect quite a show from the colonies of sea whips. Thanks to their flexible skeleton, the soft coral's boldly hued bodies sway with the ocean currents. The sea whip coral's "branches" can grow to three feet long, offering camouflage and concealment

Taste Beach Style on Jekyll Island

The Beach House sits just yards away from the beach with breathtaking views of the Atlantic. Whether you prefer to dine inside or at the bar, under the spacious screened in wrap around to all sorts of critters like crabs, shrimp, and some fish. Sea whips can live up to 15 years, but their average lifespan is just six—and sometimes less in hostile environments. Like all coral, fishing traps and lines are a constant danger, pulling them away from their moorings and washing them onto shores. They have natural predators, too, including sea slugs and a type of striped puffer fish called a burrfish. Fortunately, sea whips are not an endangered species, at least not yet, says Yank Moore, the Jekyll Island Authority's Director of Conservation. "They are vulnerable, as are most coral species," he says, "but they do not have any official [endangered] listing."

Sea whip coral is a suspension feeder, sucking up plankton as it floats nearby.

Our culinary team takes tremendous pride in creating something for everyone in a family friendly atmosphere. From home made deserts, hand crafted salads, appetizers, and Artisan pizzas to the stars of the show with fresh local seafood. We feature a full wrap around bar with one of the largest draft beer selections in Southeast GA. From Porters to Ciders, we are able to showcase a variety of regional craft beers on one of our 24 tap handles.

Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pets are welcomed! Beach House is also available to host private parties and dining events in the state of the art event space.

In June 2008, when Jekyll Island Authority Executive Director Jones Hooks told the board that just hired him that he intended to live on the island he would be in charge of, many said the move was a mistake. And that was a nice way of putting it.

"They told me I was crazy," says Hooks. "They said I'd never get away from the job."

They were right. But that was the point. Hooks had spent the previous 30 years working in and around the public, first as an aide to the late Georgia congress- man Ronald "Bo" Ginn and then heading up numerous organizations geared toward community or economic development at the local, state, and federal levels. He knew from experience that the only way to truly understand a place and its people was to live there—even if it meant he might not be able to take an evening bike ride without being stopped by a neighbor with a question or concern. "I had never represented an area where I had not lived," says Hooks. "You only really know an area when you are there 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

That devotion became a trademark as Hooks ushered in an unprecedented period of renewal on Jekyll Island, an era that is now ending. After 15 years helming the JIA, Hooks is retiring.

"He has been totally committed to Jekyll and to the renovation and enhancements that we brought," says Bob Krueger, Vice Chairman of the JIA Board of Directors. Krueger was on the selection committee when the board hired Hooks. "His demand for quality and the team he has brought on board have helped us maintain the natural beauty of Jekyll and natural charm of Jekyll and make it a special destination."

When Hooks first moved his family to Jekyll, the home they bought was in need of updating. It had to be gutted and rebuilt from the studs. The island Hooks inherited wasn't in much better shape. The number of visitors to the island had plummeted. Hotels had lost their national branding and were having trouble booking guests. Buildings were run down. The island had few restaurants and a sub-standard gas station. With an annual operating budget of only $15 million, Hooks was charged with developing Jekyll into a tourist attraction while preserving its history and delicate natural habitat. Former Governor Sonny Perdue had earlier determined that Jekyll should be revitalized and provided the necessary budgetary catalyst.

The crown jewel of development efforts was approval and construction of a new, more modern convention center and the adjacent beach village retail shops in 2010. This in turn brought back the international hotel chains, including The Westin Jekyll Island, which built its resplendent resort

“On five years later. On the other side of the island, Hooks oversaw upgrades to the Jekyll Island Club Resort area and its surrounding historic cottages, as well as the total revamp of old horse stables into what today is Mosaic, the island's museum, which documents and raises awareness of the island's rich history. Former Governor Nathan Deal and Governor Brian Kemp continued to support revitalization efforts led by Hooks. In all, more than $285 million in private investments and more than $82 million in public capital was spent on improvements to the island.

Hooks also used a shelved conservation study as a blueprint to cordon off Jekyll's natural treasures and invested in a new conservation plan, plus the staff necessary to execute it. "When I first arrived, our conservation was pretty much one employee running around with a butterfly net," says Hooks. Gradually he has been able to boost the conservation budget to more than $700,000 a year, in addition to programming around the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Initiatives to save plovers, turtles, bobcats, dunes and marshes have been launched. The operating budget also includes annual funding for reforestation.

Hooks oversaw many more subtle improvements throughout the island, too, and not just by paving roads and replanting trees. He changed the work culture of Jekyll, and he did so by example.

"He went to almost every new-employee orientation and talked about setting the tone and how everybody and every job is important," says Marjorie Johnson, JIA Chief Accounting Officer. "It takes everybody to meet the goals of the JIA and Jones gives examples in orientation of ways that different jobs impact those goals. When Jones went out for a bike ride, he would stop and pick up trash along the way. He would also make a list as he was riding around of things he saw that needed to be spruced up. He never 'clocked out.'"

Now, after serving longer than any executive director since the JIA's formation in 1950, Hooks has decided it's time to step aside. He aims to travel and spend more time with his wife Stephanie and their grandchildren. He and Stephanie aren't leaving Jekyll, though. They will continue to live in the same house he moved into 15 years ago, remaining a supportive citizen of the island he's grown to love.

"I've poured everything into this place," says Hooks. "This is the only place I know where you can walk to the beach, see a beautiful sunrise, and in the same day easily walk to the island’s other side and watch the sun set."

Rediscover Jekyll Island

“There’s nothing like it that exists, and when you break through the path leading to the beach and see it for the first time, it feels like you take a step back in time to another world.”

Triumphant

160 years ago, the first Black Union regiment found glory on Jekyll

BY REBECCA BURNS

For many it was a return, a bittersweet homecoming that celebrated a battle for independence in the truest sense of the term. In January 1863, the First South Carolina Volunteers—the first Black Union Army regiment—arrived at Jekyll Island and laid waste to the Confederate battery.

"Their story is moving," said Andrea Marroquin, curator of Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum. "This is a triumphant example of formerly enslaved people who freed themselves and others."

The First South Carolina Volunteers were residents of the Sea Islands who fled slavery in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina to join the Union Army. The First South Carolina Volunteers set out in early 1863, following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, to bring the news to formerly enslaved residents in the Southeast. When they reached Jekyll, they labored to remove and salvage iron from the abandoned Confederate battery. Some of the troops had, in enslavement, worked for the Confederates to create the battery there.

"The men have been repeatedly under fire . . . and have in every instance come off not only with unblemished honor, but with undisputed triumph," wrote their commanding officer, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

The First South Carolina Volunteers, later known as the 33rd Regiment in the U.S. Colored Infantry, were the longest-serving Black unit in the Union army.

As the group moved through the South spreading news of the Emancipation Proclamation, it followed the motto, "the year of Jubilee has come."

The story of the regiment is being incorporated into exhibitions at Mosaic, part of ongoing efforts to showcase the island's African American history in programs and exhibits at the museum. "We want to make history relatable to more people, and tell a more complete history," Marroquin said.

BY MARY LOGAN BIKOFF PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

Amedley of architectural styles chronicles the history of Jekyll Island, from 18thcentury tabby ruins to the heavily ornamented Queen Anne Victorian clubhouse at the Jekyll Island Club Resort to midcentury modern ranches.

Perhaps no two architects display this stylistic range better than John Russell Pope and Cormac McGarvey. Pope, the famed classical architect behind some of the nation's most revered public buildings (including the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.), designed one of the last great Gilded Age mansions (or "cottages," as they're called) on the island in 1927. McGarvey was an accomplished local architect who drew up some of Jekyll's most distinctive, function-first midcentury modern residences following the purchase of the island by the State of Georgia in 1947.

"That's a pretty short distance, timewise," says Taylor Davis, historic preservationist for the Jekyll Island Authority, "to see such a massive change in style."

When Pope was hired in the late 1920s by Walter Jennings, a Standard Oil executive and new president of the Jekyll Island Club, to design a winter retreat for his family on the island, the private club was at its peak of glory. One of the last residences of that era, Pope's Villa Ospo, combined Italian Renaissance and Spanish Eclectic influences, with its arched windows and doorways, Ludowici tile roof, and classical pilasters.

Second-floor balconies, arcaded walkways, and arched corridors shed light on the relaxed but lavish lifestyle the Jennings family lived.

By the 1950s, with the island now in state hands, Jekyll witnessed new architectural energy, especially after the causeway was opened to automobiles in 1954. When Jekyll's first land leases became available in the late 1940s, the island was a "tabula rasa," as Davis puts it, of residential architecture, save for the "Millionaire's Village," which had quickly become an artifact. Jekyll's new neighborhoods—Pine Grove, Oak Grove, Jekyll Beach, and others—spoke to the more efficient, streamlined postwar lifestyle that middle-class vacationing families enjoyed. New homes were low-slung, flooded with light, and featured built-ins and fireplaces.

McGarvey, a Brunswick native who studied in Paris and worked in New York, would have been privy to high-style modern pioneers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. That influence was evident in his 1950s design of the no-longer standing community center known as the St. Simons Casino, a fashionable white modernist building designed as a horizontal component to the neighboring lighthouse. McGarvey also drafted some of Jekyll's most notable midcentury homes, showcasing flat roofs, floor-to-ceiling windows, overhanging eaves, and concrete breeze blocks for patio privacy and ventilation, a style that Davis has taken to calling "coastal Brutalist." There are at least a half-dozen such McGarvey homes on Jekyll that Davis is currently researching. "They do all have similarities, and they stand out," he says. Many remain unrenovated, often featuring original bathroom and kitchen details, from turquoise tile to built-in cabinets.

These homes are a far cry from the monumental columns and arcades of Pope's work. But if you look closely, Davis says, the two architects share, in particular, an ability to pull the outside into their work in order to bask in the island's natural beauty.

"Jekyll Island is a place like no other. We brought our boat down from Annapolis [Maryland] for eight winters in a row and eventually decided we should stay. We live at the marina, which means we have yearround waterfront views and a constantly changing group of friends. The best thing about the island is its natural beauty. Since Georgia law mandates that only [a small amount] of the island can be developed, you find unspoiled beaches, live oaks, and wildlife here that you don't see anywhere else. And the historic district is incredible. It's like living in a history book."

–PAUL TRUELOVE AND LINDA THOMPSON

As told to FRAN WORRALL

Photograph by BRIAN AUSTIN LEE paul truelove and linda thompson work with jekyll island boat tours, paul as a dolphin boat captain and linda as office manager. they moved from annapolis, where paul taught at the annapolis school of seamanship and linda was a chef on a large private yacht. linda, who is also a licensed boat captain, often runs charters with paul.