Est. 1887 · Jekyll Island Club Historic District · National Historic Landmark · Gilded Age Preservation · Georgia State Historic Property
In 1886, a group of New York and Georgia investors organized the Jekyll Island Club as a private winter hunting retreat. Jekyll Island, a 11,000-acre barrier island off the coast of Brunswick, Georgia, offered isolation, game, and a climate that made it attractive to wealthy Northern families seeking relief from winter.
The original clubhouse was completed in 1887, and the surrounding grounds were developed over the following decades with private 'cottages' — in the Gilded Age sense, meaning substantial estate homes — for the most prominent member families. The Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Pulitzers, Astors, Macys, and the family of J.P. Morgan all built or occupied cottages on the island. At the peak of its membership, the Jekyll Island Club reportedly controlled a significant fraction of American wealth.
General Lloyd Aspinwall, a founding member of the club, died unexpectedly on September 4, 1886, more than a year before the club formally opened. His early death was recorded in letters and club documents from the period.
Samuel Spencer, first president of the Southern Railway, was a regular member whose morning ritual — coffee and the Wall Street Journal in his suite — was well known to staff and fellow members. Spencer died in a train accident in 1906.
World War II ended the club's operation; in 1942 the club was advised to close by the U.S. government, which was concerned about the island's coastal exposure. The State of Georgia purchased Jekyll Island in 1947. The clubhouse and cottages have operated as a resort under various management arrangements since the 1970s.
Sources
- https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/jekyll-island-club-resort/ghost-stories.php
- https://hauntedus.com/georgia/jekyll-island-club-resort/
- https://www.jekyllisland.com/magazine/shades-of-the-past/
ApparitionsObject movement
Samuel Spencer's routine was fixed enough during his lifetime that it generated documentation: coffee, the Wall Street Journal, his suite in the Annex building, every morning. After his 1906 death in a train accident, guests in the suite that now bears his name began returning from brief outings to find the morning paper unfolded and moved, and coffee cups that appeared to have been recently sipped. The staff noted it. The guests noted it. The accounts are consistent enough to be cited in the resort's official historical materials.
General Lloyd Aspinwall presents a different and more dramatically timed pattern. Aspinwall died on September 4, 1886, before the club had officially opened. Letters from members in the years following his death describe sightings of the general on the Riverfront Veranda at dusk — only on September 4th, only in the evening, walking with his hands clasped behind him in a military posture. The veranda area has been named the Aspinwall Room in his memory.
The club's third documented presence is a bellman in vintage 1920s uniform — cap and suit — who delivers freshly pressed suits to guests on the second floor. Multiple bridegrooms have reported his appearance; the nature of the deliveries (pressed suits, correct timing, gentle knock) suggests a specific period of service memory rather than general atmospheric activity.
The resort's paranormal accounts are unusual in their specificity and their documentation in official historical channels. The Jekyll Island Club is a National Historic Landmark; its records go back to the 1880s. The ghosts, if present, are well-documented neighbors.
Notable Entities
Samuel SpencerGeneral Lloyd AspinwallThe Bellman
