In Service of Others
Friday, May 30th, 2008Imagine yourself back at the Jekyll Island Club in the early days. Would you have been enjoying formal dinners at the Clubhouse or tea parties on the lawn? Not likely! It took a fat money clip and major connections to secure a place on the Club’s Membership Roster in days gone by. No, to charm your way onto the exclusive island resort, you would have had to land a coveted post as a servant. But, never fear, many such positions were available.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays from June 17 to August 7, at 10:00 am, the Jekyll Island Museum is offering “In the Service of Others,” a specialty tour describing what your experience might have been like as one of the hundreds of working class men, women, and children that were needed to make this life of luxury possible.Personal maids, valets, groundskeepers, captains, caretakers, and laundresses were all an integral part of the Jekyll Island Club community. This summer, their hidden world will be explored at this upscale turn-of-the-century resort. Many island employees left personal accounts of their experiences on the island, which form the basis for this special behind-the-scenes tour. Learn how Superintendent Ernest Grob managed the Jekyll Island Club for 42 years, so well that Susan Albright Reed later wrote “Mr. Grob, the club manager, had a happy facility for making each Jekyl member, all one hundred of them, feel that he worked for him only.” Hear about the experiences of Ray Hill and his family, who were important figures in Jekyll Island’s African American community throughout the Jekyll Island Club Era. Ray Hill was first employed as a playmate to young Bobby Goodyear and also served as a caddy on the island’s golf courses. Discover Kate Brown, who hired on as a personal secretary and tutor for the Valentine Everit Macy family in 1917. When her duties with the Macy children were finished, she attended tea at Moss Cottage, played golf with Mrs. Macy, went bike riding with William Rockefeller, dined at the Club Hotel, and “motored” along the beach for a picnic. She wrote that her visit to the Jekyll Island Club was “Some party for a country girl like me!” This tour takes guests into the hidden service areas of two of the cottages, where the employees lived and worked. Discover what job duties, wages, and benefits were available for those working at this Gilded Era island resort. Find out about differencesThis specialty tour departs from the Jekyll Island Museum building on Stable Road on Tuesdays and Thursdays from June 17 to August 7, 2008 at 10:00 am. Adults $16, Children $7, Free under 6. For information about daily tour offerings, call the Jekyll Island Museum at (912) 635-4036.
