Tag: hollybourne cottage

A Celebration of Preservation

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

Hollybourne Cottage is set to celebrate Historic Preservation Month this May with a whole host of new developments. The Jacobethan-style cottage was built in 1890 for the Maurice family. Charles Stewart Maurice, the patriarch, was a partner in the Union Bridge Company. His passion for his work directly translated into the design of his family’s Jekyll Island home, where a bridge-like truss helps to support the first and second floors of the house. Charles, his wife Charlotte, and their nine children were fixtures at the Jekyll Island Club for more than half a century. They hosted Christmas parties for employees, welcomed Club member families to their house, and wrote about the broader history of Jekyll Island. Notably, Hollybourne is the only Jekyll Island Club cottage whose ownership stayed within just one family.

Today, Hollybourne is the focus of a decades-long preservation effort. A four-year-long window rehabilitation project was just completed in April, thanks to volunteer, intern, and staff efforts. These groups rehabilitated each of the cottage’s windows with new wood and glass bead, restrung them with new sash cord, painted their exteriors, and oiled their interiors. Every window in the house is now operational.

Thanks to pieces and parts from Historic Resources’ historic fixture collection, one of the three original Hollybourne bathrooms is now operational as well! Volunteers, staff, and interns installed a high-tank toilet and sink. They also ran a new 100-foot waste line and fresh water line to the building. Interestingly, this is the first time that the house’s waste line has run to the sewer rather than the river. Alongside the use of the gun room and servants’ dining room as bride and groom dressing rooms, the newly functional bathroom supports the cottage’s use as an historic venue space for weddings and other special events.

Currently, the Authority’s preservation team is working on an extensive basement structural repair. The team replaced a supporting beam and two damaged joists. They will soon add a vertical support to the basement structure. While working in the basement, members of the team discovered a 1902 contractor’s signature near an electrical fixture—likely left as the Jekyll Island Club prepared for the electrification of the island in 1903.

Finally, work in Hollybourne’s dining room continues. The preservation team applied finishes to the dining room’s interior. The dining room was cleaned and cleared out, while the walls were finished to exhibit level. In the cottage’s next phase, this room will house an exhibit interpreting Hollybourne’s decades-long preservation process. The rest of the cottage’s first floor will be included in the exhibit as well. While Hollybourne is an incredible and unique structure, the new exhibit will reach beyond its architecture to tell the story of the Maurice family and the house’s ongoing preservation. In the meantime, guests can join Mosaic for a daily tour of Hollybourne Cottage and see one of Jekyll Island’s most unique historic homes for themselves!

A Year of Progress at Hollybourne Cottage

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

It’s hard to miss Hollybourne Cottage on a trip through the Historic District. The Cottage’s unique structure, enormous side porch, and tabby exterior attract curious visitors every day. These same features speak to the Maurice family’s love for Hollybourne and their devotion to preservation on Jekyll Island. Charles and Charlotte Maurice spearheaded the first rehabilitation of Horton House and the Dubignon cemetery, two other tabby structures on the island, in 1898. Even after Charles’ and Charlotte’s deaths, their children, especially their daughters Marion and Margaret, maintained their devotion to Jekyll Island and spent every winter season at Hollybourne until 1942.

Today, Hollybourne Cottage is a fascinating preservation work in progress. Throughout the past year, Jekyll Island Authority Historic Preservationist Taylor Davis and a host of volunteers have worked to make important improvements to the cottage’s exterior and interior features.

The most visible project from the outside is Hollybourne’s roof—the cottage’s original shingles were made of old growth cypress, and the team recently undertook a major roof preservation project. Hollybourne gained new, high-quality cedar shingles that are fire, rot, and bug resistant, aiding in the future preservation of the cottage.

Several interior features were upgraded as well. A stove hood in the service wing of the house had been removed from the building for eight years for stabilization and paint sampling to retain its original color. Volunteers rehung this stove hood in early 2022, along with the original basement door, which also underwent significant preservation.

In the dining room, the team continues work on the ceiling, including new lath (wooden strips) which will be left exposed. The ceiling project, along with several other projects in the dining room, aim to return the room to an interpretable level while leaving “windows to the past” to highlight construction methods.

Hollybourne Cottage’s story is ongoing. The most recent issue of 31•81, the Magazine of Jekyll Island, highlighted one of the cottage’s remarkable preservation stories. As Preservation Month approaches in May, make sure to visit Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum for opportunities to explore Hollybourne’s unique place in Jekyll Island history or click HERE to participate in the restoration of this beautiful piece of history.

“Maymester” at the Georgia Coast

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Taylor Davis, JIA Historic Preservationist

This past May, the Jekyll Island Authority, in partnership with the University of Georgia, hosted the 11th annual Historic Preservation Field School at the Georgia Coast Maymester.  “Maymester” is a 3-credit-hour course which consists of a two-week long, intensive dive into historic preservation projects within the Jekyll Island National Historic Landmark District.  The goal of the course is to give students hands-on experience through projects and to educate them about the history, landscape, culture, and architecture of the Georgia coast.  This program also benefits the Jekyll Island Historic District through the students assisting with necessary preservation projects. 

Maymester was conceived in 2009 by UGA professor Mark Reinberger, adjunct professor Tim Walsh, and me, a recent graduate of the Historic Preservation program at UGA.  With the original focus on projects at Hofwyl Broadfield Plantation and in the historic south end of Brunswick, Jekyll has been the site of the Maymester course since 2017.  Currently it is one of the longest running Maymester programs at UGA.

Through the years, projects and locations have varied.  Students have tackled stabilization, documentation, and rehabilitation projects on many historic structures throughout Glynn County.  One of the main project sites in the past was the Smith House in Brunswick, GA, circa 1867.

Student make-up for the field school is a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students from many different concentrations of study including historic preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, history, and even biology.  The 2021 class consisted of 12 students from UGA and one student from Clemson University.  This is the first year that the course was advertised outside of UGA, with the hope that it will be further reaching in the future – open to students from all over the southeastern United States. 

With the large number of students this year, the team took on more projects than in previous years.  The students assisted in historic window rehabilitation at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, exterior wall stabilization at Goodyear Cottage, scrapping and prepping elements of the rear porch at Mistletoe Cottage, replication of historic woodwork at Indian Mound Cottage, and the beginning phases of rehabilitation of the historic courtyard of the Chichota Cottage ruins.

Ongoing historic preservation efforts in Jekyll’s Historic District are made possible through visitation to the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum and through donations to the Jekyll Island Foundation.  So get involved and donate today! 

Celebrate Preservation Month

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

The story of Hollybourne Cottage began in 1890 when Charles Stewart Maurice, one of the original members of the Jekyll Island Club, chose a plot of land for his family’s winter residence. Maurice’s personality and interests were evident in Hollybourne’s very construction. Maurice was a partner in Pennsylvania’s Union Bridge Company, and he incorporated bridge-building techniques into Hollybourne. The brick piers in the basement, steel support system, and truss system that supports the second floor are all examples of Maurice’s techniques.

Hollybourne’s construction incorporated a mixture of its owner’s passion for his work and his newfound enthusiasm for his family’s winter vacation home. Hollybourne is the only cottage in the Jekyll Island Club compound to be built out of tabby, a local mixture of sand, water, lime, and oyster shells, reflecting Charles’s and his wife Charlotte’s interests in the history and culture of the area. The Maurices’ personal investment in Jekyll Island’s history led them to spearhead the restoration of Horton House and the Dubignon cemetery in 1898. Charlotte died in 1909 and Charles died in 1924, but their family’s Jekyll Island story didn’t end there. Their nine children, especially their daughters Margaret and Marion, were similarly devoted to Jekyll Island, and spent every winter season at Hollybourne Cottage until the Club’s final season in 1942.

Hollybourne sat empty and in a state of disrepair for several decades. Beginning in 1998, however, the cottage became an ongoing preservation project for the Jekyll Island Authority and a host of volunteers. Most recently, volunteers and preservationists spent several months restoring and preserving Hollybourne’s windows. Holllybourne’s present as an ongoing preservation project, as well as its past as a home for a family focused on the preservation of Jekyll Island, make it a perfect destination for this May’s annual celebration of Preservation Month. Visitors can see the family and servant areas of the cottage and observe the preservation process in action or take part in programs that highlight Historic Preservation Month, like family history programs and an outline of international design at the Jekyll Island Club.

To reserve a spot on a tour of Hollybourne Cottage or at one of our Preservation Month activities, click HERE  or to help preserve and restore Hollybourne Cottage, click HERE to donate.

Mosaic Museum – Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Michael Scott, JIA Director of Historic Resources

As Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum approaches its 2nd anniversary, we look back on a year filled with challenges but also see many success stories. On the eve of the 1st anniversary, plans to celebrate were interrupted with what turned out to be a health crisis that few, if any, had ever anticipated. While the COVID-19 pandemic did cause some disruption early on, the Mosaic Museum took a proactive approach to minimizing impact as safely as possible. Upon reopening our doors, visitors were greeted with increased sanitization of commonly touched surfaces, reduced capacity in the Gallery and on trolley tours to allow for social distancing and an increase in engaging outdoor programming. Because of this, Mosaic reopened earlier than many other spaces around the nation.

To welcome back visitors, new opportunities and programming was introduced. In coordination with the Authority’s Conservation Department, Ranger Walks to see the island’s active bald eagle nest now begin and end at Mosaic, allowing visitors to experience the museum as a launching point for both natural and cultural history. Additionally, for the first time, Hollybourne Cottage opened to the public for regular tours. Visitors are able to see the inside of the cottage while staff actively work to conserve, preserve, and restore portions of the home. Increasing guest access to the historic district, expanded tours are now in play on Jekyll’s famous red trolleys. While enjoying the fresh air, guests are able to ride thru the historic district and learn about the Island’s over 2000 years of history or take a deeper dive into the cottages that represent the gilded age experience of the Jekyll Island Club and its members. Continuing to facilitate the need for social distancing, exciting seasonal programming included Macabre Tales tour and the Holly Jolly Lights tour made the most of the 2020 holiday season. Finally, to help tell some lesser-known stories, the team kicked off a successful series of gallery exhibitions, telling powerful stories in a way that’s never done before.  

As we move toward year three, Mosaic will continue to serve as the ambassador and hub for Jekyll Island’s natural and cultural history. By growing the museum’s place-based learning options and developing new opportunities for exploration, Mosaic will continue to make a visit to Jekyll Island a special event for everyone.

New spaces, places, and stories from the island’s history are under development, which will allow even more visitors to learn about the special role that Jekyll has played in the past and how that connects to the world today. Education is at the heart of any museum’s work, and the Mosaic will continue to serve as a space to reach the broadest range of visitors through its exhibitions, tours, programs, and special events.

If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to experience one of our unique cottage tours that begin at Mosaic, particularly the new Hollybourne Cottage tour, we encourage you to purchase a ticket online to take a peek inside and see years of preservation first-hand.