The Rockefeller Cottage, also known as Indian Mound Cottage, is a house on

Jekyll Island, Georgia Jekyll Island is located off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, in Glynn County. It is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia barrier islands. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, s ...

. It is next to the

Jekyll Island Club The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from John E ...

. It stands three stories high, and has a total of 25 rooms. There are nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and seven servant rooms. The house has many distinguishing features such as an elevator, a cedar-lined walk-in safe, and taps for hot and cold salt water on the bathtub in the master bedroom bath. Tours of the mansion are provided by the Jekyll Island Museum.

History

The house was built by

Gordon McKay Gordon McKay (1821–1903) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Biography He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was trained as an engineer, worked on a railroad, and then on the Erie Canal before he purchased a machine shop. ...

in 1892. McKay died in 1903 and the house was bought by

William Rockefeller William Avery Rockefeller Jr. (May 31, 1841 – June 24, 1922) was an American businessman and financier. Rockefeller was a co-founder of Standard Oil along with his elder brother John Davison Rockefeller. He was also part owner of the Anaconda ...

in 1905, who used it as a winter home. It was evacuated in 1942, along with the rest of the island. The house remained in the Rockefeller family until 1947, when the Jekyll Island Authority bought the property. It was open as a museum from 1950 until 1968, when it was closed for badly needed repairs. It is now a public museum. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971.

Mound

The house took its original name from a mound in the front yard. The mound was once thought to be an Indian burial ground for the

Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th ...

Indians, who were the earliest inhabitants of the island.Glynn County listing for Indian Mound Cottage
/ref> The mound was later found to be a

shell midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

left by the Indians.

References

External links

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Jekyll Island Museum: History Tours

Glynn County listing for Indian Mound Cottage

- RV travels across North America with Bob and Laura Madigan
Video of the restored mansion in 2010
{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Museums in Glynn County, Georgia Houses in Glynn County, Georgia Historic house museums in Georgia (U.S. state) Shingle Style architecture in Georgia (U.S. state) Houses completed in 1892 1892 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Jekyll Island Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Georgia (U.S. state)