Jekyll Island

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Location of the famous meeting which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank.

In 1910, the Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and succeeded in blocking the Republicans major proposal for bank reform, which had been introduced by Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island.

The terms of this were decided upon at the infamous secret meeting on Jekyll Island, an isolated retreat in Georgia where key leaders of Wall Street met clandestinely to determine bank reform.

In attendance at the meeting were Senator Aldrich, John D. Rockefeller, Frank Vanderlip of National City Bank (now Citibank), Henry Davison of J.P. Morgan bank, and Paul Warburg of investment bank, Kuhn Loeb.

The bankers met secretly because they knew that any proposal identified as Wall Street legislation would not be passed by the Democrat controlled House.