From My 2006 Travel Notes - 3 of x

Excerpts from 17 May, 2006, travel journal.

The esplanade laid below the gentle grassy slope a short distant from the Club Hotel. In about a minute I was ready upon the seawall. The glow of sunset was fast dissolving; silhouetted black against the shorelines were the thick quills of the salt marshes. With the distant Ocean Highway-Bridge still in view, I drank in this unfettered moment of serenity from God’s cup. Photo: Sunset at Jekyll Island.

Tucked away here on Jekyll Island, the Club Hotel is the epitome of the Industrial Age’s edifice complex; le style du moment, the Queen Anne style architecture. Walking back from the seawall under the farewell gleam of the evening light, I saw for the first time the solitary and peerless grandeur of the hotel. Photo: The Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

Curiously, the Queen Anne architectural style bore little attributes or connection to the 18th century English monarch other than her name sake. Nevertheless, this vogue came into being and flourished splendidly a century ago on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Club Hotel was built between 1872 and 1902 in the American Queen Anne style. Charles Alexander, the principle architect of the building, incorporated in the design extensive verandas, a medieval-like turret, oak wainscoting, heart-of-pine floors, bay windows, and leaded art glass panes, and 93 fireplaces. I should not hesitate to mention, one such fireplace had been cozily settled...

...The evening air carried a whiff of flourishing bloom and fragrance; perhaps a tribute to the nourishing bosom of the subtropical clime. Sans the din and winged insects of the night, a dreamy quietness crept over the landscape...