Golden Era of Georgia's Golden Isle

I know that there are many of you who, like me, have fond memories of summers spent at Sea Island, Georgia. Although my family usually rented houses there, the old Cloister hotel is what I remember most vividly. It was my first exposure to the work of Addison Mizner, architect of The Cloister. As a child, I had no idea who Mizner was. I just liked the Spanish style architecture of the hotel. I remember the hotel's Spanish Lounge where there was always a table set up in the corner with a jigsaw puzzle at the ready. The Dining Room at The Cloister makes me think of Baked Alaska (which I had there for the first time on my 10th birthday), finger bowls and doilies, and Kadota figs. Kadota figs were always on the menu for breakfast as was prune juice. I never indulged in either one. And of course, there were The Cloister's legendary Bingo games. Bingo was what you did at night after dinner.

The old Cloister was torn down back in 2003, and a new, fancy version replaced it. It's sad, really, as I miss that great old building. I came across these c. 1941 photos of The Cloister, part of the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection of photographs, over the weekend and wanted to share them with you. The interiors that you see here are credited to Francis Abreu, the noted architect. Although Mizner was responsible for The Cloister's architecture when it was built in the late 1920s, Abreu was the architect behind the adjacent buildings as well as later additions and renovations. The photo captions make note of the "new" dining room, so I'm assuming that the dining room seen here must have been an addition to The Cloister around 1940.

So, for all of us who remember Sea Island for what it used to be, here is a trip down memory lane:


Large club room




Blue club room






Passage to new Dining Room




New Dining Room




New Dining Room




New Dining Room