by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The flappers are all gone but their Roaring ’20s spirit lives on at the Ribault Club, a moss-framed estate on 100 acres of pristine waterfront park land.
Once known as “The Millionaires Club,” the Ribault is now open to the public following Sunday’s building dedication at the Fort George Island site.
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton helped welcome the crowd and cut the ribbon at the club, named for Jean Ribault, the Huguenot explorer who arrived on Fort George Island in 1562.
Peyton was joined by a number of dignitaries and officials from the state, the National Park Service and the Department of Environmental Protection.
Peyton said he has become known as “the job growth mayor,” with a commitment to “growing the economy ... and this is another way to approach that. It speaks to the quality of life.”
“When we take care of land and places like the Ribault Club,” he added, visitors are drawn to them and the surrounding area.
Amelia Island Plantation and the Ritz-Carlton sponsored an invitation-only preview party Saturday night.
“The Ribault Club is the perfect place for those seeking a mix of history, elegance and style in a unique natural setting,” said Leana Gallagher, the club’s rental agent and facility manager.
The Ribault’s interior features 14-foot ceilings, terrazzo flooring and dramatic archways. Thirty-six sets of cypress wood French doors overlook Talbot Island.
A group of businessmen who wanted to mirror the Jekyll Island Club formed the Ribault Inn Club in 1927. Leading the effort were Stevens Heckscher, a Philadelphia attorney, and Rear Admiral Victor Blue.
The two men brought in famed golf course architect Donald Ross to lay out a nine-hole golf course and commissioned society architect Maurice Fatio to design the building.
Fatio, whose clients included the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers, created a building with 14 bedrooms, four private baths, five shared baths and large public rooms.
The club’s formal opening was the first weekend in December 1928. Featured were a buffet supper and dancing to a five-piece orchestra. Room fees were $10 to $12 a day. The services of a maid was an additional $5 a day.
The club’s membership roster included prominent residents of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Pittsburgh.
“They had some success, but then the Depression hit,” Gallagher said. “And Flagler took the railroad to where it was warm in the winter.
“After that great, grand opening, the club just hobbled along. It seemed destined for success, and then it fizzled.”
During the 1940s, the Ribault became a public-private club, “and a lot of local folks remember having lunch and playing golf there,” said Gallagher.
Fairfield Communities bought the property in the early 1980s with the hope of turning it into a resort similar to Amelia Island Plantation.
“They universally got shut down,” Gallagher said. “It’s a beautiful spot of land and nobody wanted to see it shut down.”
The State then bought the land as part of the Talbot Island Park system.
The City of Jacksonville leased the golf course and opened it to the public for a few years, “but they couldn’t make it financially,” said Gallagher. “It costs a lot of money to operate a golf course.
“The building was basically boarded up and left to rot, a big old structure nobody could figure out what to do with.”
Before the wrecking ball took its turn, a group of local residents worked with the state, the National Park System and the City of Jacksonville to preserve the property.
The $4 million restoration project took four years to complete.
“It’s a very noteworthy partnership — national, state and local — that worked together amicably for four years to benefit the community,” Gallagher said. “Those three, plus the community support, raised the funds to go through a $4 million restoration.”
An interpretive audio-visual museum is on site to present the life and history of the people, places and land of Northeast Florida.
The club can accommodate just about any function, from a meeting for 12 to weddings, charitable functions and dinner dances with 400 guests, Gallagher said.
For more information about renting the Ribault Club, call 251-1050.