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Silent Sentinels
The centerpiece of the 240-acre Historic District of Jekyll Island is the Queen Anne Club House with its distinctive turret and seemingly endless verandas. Stretching to the north and south of this building and facing the Jekyll River are numerous “cottages” built by early club members as an exclusive hunting retreat in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of these grand old structures still exist with their own remarkable stories and of their owners who were financiers and industrialists when the nation was exploding with growth and progress in the late Victorian era.
Chichota Cottage --- once the winter retreat of David H. King and later financier Edwin Gould --- is no longer there. All that remains of this once handsome structure on Riverview Drive are two stone lions, silently guarding the entrance to what was once a striking cottage of Italian Renaissance design.
Constructed in 1897 for New York City magnate, David King, the graceful cottage had several distinguishing features including an indoor swimming pool and a basement. It was also the only single-story cottage on the island. For a number of reasons, including a failed wedding engagement and the hurricane of 1898, King would later sell his cottage and other Jekyll Island interests in 1900 to Edwin Gould, son of the infamous financier, Jay Gould. |
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Edwin Gould, handsome and quiet, was very family oriented; he was also an exceptionally astute businessman. After attending Columbia University's School of Mines, Edwin left in 1887 before graduation to enter the arena of finance on Wall Street, and within the year he had made his first million.
Gould met lovely Sarah Cantine Shrady in 1892 at his sister's coming-out reception, and in that same year he and Sarah were married. This was the beginning of a family-centered life and a lifelong commitment for Edwin and Sarah. They were completely compatible and enjoyed a happy life together while Edwin's business career became ever more successful. Independent of his father's wealth, Edwin would eventually become president of a railroad company, the Western Coal and Mining Company, the Seventh National Bank of New York, and many other businesses. |
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Edwin was just 33 years old, his wife 25, when he joined the Jekyll Island Club as one of its youngest members. The island was a delightful place for the couple to bring their two young sons in 1901 when they came for the first time to enjoy Chichota Cottage together. Several charming, sepia photographs from these early times show the Gould's on outings they planned for the children on the island. As the family visited each season, their cottage and life on Jekyll Island only grew more to their liking.
When several additional Jekyll Island lots became available, Edwin quickly secured them so that he could build more additions to his complex. A private wharf, bowling alley and covered tennis court, rifle range, and greenhouse were added as well as a stable and a beach house. (The tennis court/bowling alley building still stands.) Eventually, his holdings were the most elaborate of any property on Jekyll Island. |
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One site, for which Edwin did considerable negotiating, lay just east of Chichota Cottage. He wanted it to be the location of the cottage he planned to build for his father and mother-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. George Frederick Shrady. Both were known by many for their kindness and generosity. Very fond of them, Edwin had supported their philanthropies with the American Red Cross and admired Dr. Shrady's work in New York City where he was chief surgeon of more than eight hospitals. The Gould family wanted them to be nearby where the children could visit often and easily with their grandparents. When the site was finally available, Edwin wasted no time in having Cherokee Cottage built for his beloved in-laws.
Always an active member of the Jekyll Island Club as well as an enthusiastic pilot of early airplanes, Edwin Gould offered one of his properties on the mainland to the Aero Club of America as the site for a landing field. In 1914, he brought his own plane to the island and was willing to take on some of the more adventurous club members as passengers.
Life was going unbelievably well for the Gould-Shrady family until tragedy descended in 1917.
Young Eddie, who had become a member of the club in 1914, had loved the island since childhood…as much as he disliked the rigors of a formal education. But, Eddie was becoming a young man, and his father decided it was time for him to take up responsibilities. At the end of the 1917 season, Eddie was to take a position his father had arranged with a financial institution in New York City to learn the business.
February 24, Eddie and a friend, Noyes Reynolds, who also enjoyed hunting on the island, set out for Latham Hammock to check raccoon traps they had set earlier in the day. According to one account, they discovered a coon caught in one of the traps. “Not wanting to damage the skin by shooting the animal, [Gould] struck the raccoon with the butt of his gun.” The hammer had been cocked, and the gun, only inches from his body, discharged and wounded him fatally. Eddie's father, who had gone on business to St. Augustine, Florida, was notified; his mother learned of the accident in New York where she was attending her sick mother. The incident destroyed completely in that instant the idyllic pleasure the family had enjoyed on Jekyll Island for nearly two decades. |
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Few of the Gould family ever returned to Jekyll Island, and the once splendid Chichota Cottage which had long remained unoccupied, was demolished January 4, 1941. For a number of years the swimming pool remained in place, but finally it was filled in. The stone lions now are sentinels guarding only the memory of a once beautiful cottage and the happy family to which it belonged.
Today, Cherokee Cottage, built originally for Dr. and Mrs. Shrady, is one of the most beautiful cottages that still exist. Completely renovated and added to the hotel's collection eight years ago, the ten rooms and suites are tastefully decorated. The great room of the cottage and its accompanying billiard room are especially popular gathering places for families who rent the cottage for small wedding parties and family reunions.
For additional reading, see The Cottage Colony by June McCash. Click here for information. |
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371 Riverview Drive Jekyll Island, GA 31527
1-800-535-9547 |
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