Tybee Days: One Hundred Years on Georgia's Playground Island
Document Type
Book
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
Old Tybee has returned. Laden with pictures and stories, Tybee Days: One Hundred Years on Georgia's Playground Island pays tribute to the families who visited, settled, and worked on the island from the 1860s to the 1960s, before the famous Tybrisa Pavilion burned. The book documents early attempts to develop an alternate ocean resort on nearby Arkwright Island and its resulting failure. Tybee landowners and the State of Georgia then paved the way for the first cottages to be built on the pristine island with its three-mile long beach.
From steamboats to Prohibition to the Big Band era to the playful innocence of the '50s and '60s, authors Ellen Lyle Taber and Polly Wylly Cooper capture the celebration of everyday life through the eyes of Tybee's diverse population. As the island grew, it beckoned churches and schools, hotels, and shops. A young Chinese immigrant brought opportunities to the island with his business acumen and quiet modesty. Black rivermen plied the creeks for oysters and sold their shells to build the roads. Even Tybee's children worked, delivering buckets of shrimp to neighbors, catching crabs for the evening dinner, or stocking shelves at Chu's Department Store.