Groceries, by the most part, are ordered by each family from the mainland and shipped over to them a several times a week. His four hundred slaves not only built the house but also worked the fields of rice, sugarcane, indigo, and cotton. The house was vandalized during the Civil War and fell into ruin but it was partially restored in the early 1900's. An executive from the Hudson Motorcar Company named Howard Coffin bought the island in 1912 and rebuilt the mansion almost from the ground up changing the motif to a Spanish-Mediterranean style adding an indoor pool and other rooms. Then in 1934, tobacco heir Richard J. Reynolds purchased Sapelo Island and owned it until 1964 updating the house as the years went on.
Overnight rooms are available to visitors.
Its thirteen bedrooms will accommodate twenty-nine people. If you can possibly stay there, I would certainly recommend it. The alternatives are a few guest houses on the island owned and run by residents. They supply only the essentials and you have to bring all your own food. It was a cotton plantation and got its name from a Guale Indian village on the island named Chucalate.