Greyfield Inn

{{short description|Historic house in Georgia, United States}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Greyfield

| nrhp_type = hd | nocat = yes

|image=Greyfield Inn.jpg

| caption =

| location= Cumberland Island, Camden County, Georgia

|coordinates={{coord|30.77979|N|81.46854|W|display=title,inline}}

| locmapin = USA Georgia#USA

| built = 1901-1905

| architect=MacClure & Spahr

| architecture = Colonial Revival

| added = July 24, 2003

| area = {{convert|203|acre|km2}}

| mpsub = [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/64000129.pdf Cumberland Island National Seashore MRA]

| refnum = 03000675{{NRISref|version=2010a}}

}}

Greyfield Inn is a hotel on Cumberland Island in Camden County, Georgia, the only hotel on the island. The inn is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.{{Cite web |title=Hotel History - Greyfield Inn |url=https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/greyfield-inn/history.php |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=Historic Hotels of America |language=en}} It was opened to the public as an inn in 1962 in a Colonial Revival-style house named Greyfield located on an estate of the same name; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

The NRHP-listed area is {{convert|203|acre|km2}} and includes six contributing buildings and four contributing structures.{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=03000675}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Greyfield / Greyfield Inn|publisher=National Park Service|author= Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr. and Zachary Z. Zoul |date=May 7, 2003 |accessdate=August 10, 2017}} With {{NRHP url|id=03000675|photos=y|title=27 photos}}.

History

The house was built during 1901 to 1905 for Margaret Carnegie Ricketson and her husband Oliver Ricketson, and was one of several built for Carnegie family members within a large Carnegie family estate on Cumberland. Their daughter Lucy Carnegie Ferguson lived in the house for over seventy years.{{cite book|title=Proposed Cumberland Island National Seashore: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation |date=1972 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington. D.C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKS9AT36ntYC&pg=RA1-PA75 |language=en}} The Carnegie family owns and manages the Inn.

The house was built on a site known in 1900 as Gray's Field.{{Cite book|title=Cumberland Island: A History|last=Bullard|first=Mary|publisher=University of Georgia Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lfoQKhk4fQ4C |year=2003|isbn=9780820327419|location=Athens, Georgia}}{{rp|205}} The site apparently took its name from John W. Gray, a planter from Jekyll Island who in 1825 bought a 500 acre tract, then known as the Springs Plantation, south of the Stafford Plantation.{{rp|134}} The Springs was the site of a home built in the early 1800s by Martha Nightingale, a daughter of Nathanael Greene, and her husband.{{rp|125}}

On Sept. 21, 1996, the First African Baptist Church on the north end of the island was the location of the John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette wedding.{{Cite web|title=JFK Jr.'s Wedding Isle : Cumberland Island’s isolation offers peace and privacy for celebs, plain folk alike |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-10-tr-63144-story.html |date=November 10, 1996 |accessdate=January 1, 2023 |language=en}}

References

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