The Rise and Fall of America's Most Exclusive Club: Jekyll Island

Why did Georgia acquire the Jekyll Island Club's private island for $675,000? And what did it cost to open a world built to keep people out? For more than half a century, J. P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, and other wealthy families wintered behind a barrier of water off the Georgia coast. Evening clothes, oyster picnics, and cottages with more bedrooms for servants than for family made a carefully maintained retreat. Every boat, kitchen, and winter season came with a bill. Follow the island from its $125,000 purchase in 1886 through a secret banking meeting, shrinking membership, and the last winter of 1942. Then comes Melvin Thompson's promise of a public beach: a $3 hotel room, a road across the marsh, and a question Georgia could not settle simply by buying the land. The story reaches beyond the club years to Tallu Fish's museum, the Aquarama summers, and Black families whose access to the island followed a different timetable. Drawing on historical scholarship, contemporary reporting, and the Jekyll Island Authority's accounts of club records and family recollections, the film follows both the families who wintered here and the workers who sustained their comfort. Their experiences leave room for you to judge what was lost, what was preserved, and whom the island served. 0:00 The $675,000 Island 3:19 An Island in Four Pieces 7:26 The Man Behind the Club 12:10 A Winter Behind the Gates 17:57 Bankers, Secrets, and a Telephone 23:39 The Last Great Cottage 27:50 Fewer Members, Bigger Bills 33:17 The Last Winter 36:44 The Island Was Not for Sale 43:27 A Public Park, Padlocked 49:12 A Playground for Every Georgian? 56:07 Cobwebs in the Dining Room 59:24 What Georgia Bought Selected sources John Hunter — Jekyll Island (2003, updated 2021) Martha L. Keber — DuBignon Family (2003, updated 2018) Harold Paulk Henderson — Melvin E. Thompson (1903-1980) (2002, updated 2018) Carla Davidson — Millionaires' Island (1990) Jessie Romero, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond — Jekyll Island: Where the Fed Began (2015) Rebecca Burns — A Playground for Every Georgian (n.d.) Rebecca Burns — Grand Approach (n.d.) Tony Rehagen — In the Service of Others (n.d.) Jekyll Island Authority — Black History on Jekyll Island (accessed 2026) Jennifer Senator — Holding On to the Magic (n.d.) Jekyll Island Authority — Building a Legacy (n.d.) Adam Van Brimmer — Jekyll, Georgia's jewel, is thriving. But development fears linger (2024) This documentary is not financial advice. Some scenes are illustrated with reconstructions. #JekyllIsland #GildedAge #AmericanHistory About this film: some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions, used only where no original footage or photographs exist, and they are marked on screen as reconstructions. The narration is an AI voice. The script is researched and fact-checked against the sources listed above.