Jekyll Island: Where Millionaires Wintered and the Fed Was Born
In November 1910, six men boarded a private rail car in New Jersey, using first names only to conceal their identities. They were heading to Jekyll Island, Georgia, to a private club so exclusive that membership required sponsorship by existing members who included Rockefeller, Morgan, Pulitzer, and Vanderbilt. Over ten days of secret meetings, they drafted what would become the Federal Reserve Act. The irony was perfect: the island where America's richest had escaped the masses became the birthplace of the institution that would regulate their banks. Jekyll Island's history encapsulates the Gilded Age - extraordinary wealth, extraordinary exclusivity, and the assumption that the powerful could shape the nation from their private retreats.
The Club
The Jekyll Island Club was founded in 1886 by a group that represented roughly one-sixth of the world's wealth. They purchased the entire island, built a clubhouse, and established rules of exclusivity that made joining nearly impossible. Membership was limited to 100; the waiting list was decades long. J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, Joseph Pulitzer, and William K. Vanderbilt built 'cottages' - mansions by any other standard. The club operated January through March, when the wealthy fled Northern winters. No outsiders were permitted; even staff arrived via secured ferry. The island became what money could buy when there were no limits: complete privacy, complete control, a kingdom within a democracy.
The Meeting
The Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908 had created a National Monetary Commission to study banking reform after the Panic of 1907 revealed systemic fragility. Senator Nelson Aldrich, the commission chairman, needed a plan. He gathered six men - himself, his assistant, representatives of Morgan and Rockefeller interests, and two economists - at Jekyll Island for absolute secrecy. Over ten days, they designed a central banking system. The Federal Reserve Act, passed in 1913, wasn't identical to their draft, but the Jekyll Island meeting shaped its core structure. The architects denied the meeting occurred until decades later, when participants finally confirmed what conspiracy theorists had long alleged: the Federal Reserve was indeed designed by bankers, in secret, on a private island.
The Decline
The club declined with its members' fortunes. The income tax, enacted the same year as the Federal Reserve Act, began redistributing wealth. The Great Depression devastated even the richest. World War II sealed the club's fate - the island was too vulnerable to German submarines, and members couldn't travel. The club closed in 1942, never to reopen. Georgia purchased the island in 1947 for $675,000 - less than individual members had spent on cottages. The state promised to keep Jekyll accessible to all Georgians, preserving the buildings while opening the beaches. The island that had embodied exclusivity became public park, the mansions now museums explaining what the very richest once believed they deserved.
The Preservation
Jekyll Island's historic district contains the club compound intact - the Queen Anne clubhouse, the Tudor revival 'cottages,' the servants' quarters and support buildings. The state stabilized structures that would otherwise have collapsed; restoration continues slowly. Faith Chapel, with its Tiffany windows, still hosts weddings. The Crane Cottage hosts events in the space where Standard Oil heirs once entertained. The preservation captures the Gilded Age in amber: the architecture, the landscape, the scale of wealth that seems impossible now even as equivalent fortunes exist. The island remains accessible - no private club anymore, no waiting list, the beaches and buildings open to anyone with the price of admission.
Visiting Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island is located on Georgia's coast, accessible via causeway from Brunswick. The historic district occupies the island's north end; admission fee required. The Jekyll Island Museum offers orientation and tours of historic cottages (reservations recommended for interior tours). Driftwood Beach on the island's north end features dramatic weathered trees - a photographer's favorite. Sea turtles nest on the beaches June through August; guided programs observe nesting. Bike paths circle the island; rentals available. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center rehabilitates injured turtles. Accommodations range from the restored Jekyll Island Club Hotel to modest beachfront options. The experience contrasts Gilded Age opulence with accessible public recreation - the transformation from private to public in physical form.
From the Air
Located at 31.06°N, 81.42°W on Georgia's Atlantic coast, one of the Golden Isles barrier island chain. From altitude, Jekyll Island appears as a narrow strip of green bordered by beach, connected to the mainland by a causeway across the marshes. The historic district clusters on the island's north end, the clubhouse and cottages visible as a compact development distinct from later resort construction. The Brunswick mainland spreads to the west; St. Simons Island lies to the north. The marshlands and tidal creeks create fractal patterns between islands. What appears from altitude as one of several similar barrier islands was once the most exclusive address in America - the winter retreat of a wealth concentration never seen before or since, now preserved as public reminder of what extreme inequality looked like when it built its own kingdom.