Thomas Carnegie, younger brother and business partner of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, bought up most of Cumberland Island in the 1880s and built a 59-room mansion called Dungeness for his family. After his death, his widow Lucy continued the tradition, building separate homes on the island for each of their children; Greyfield, completed around 1901 to 1905, went to their daughter Margaret Carnegie Ricketson as a wedding gift.
Margaret’s daughter, Lucy Carnegie Ferguson, lived in the house for more than seventy years before converting it into an inn in 1962 as a way to keep the property in the family and financially sustainable. Dungeness itself burned down in 1959, reportedly the result of a grudge against the Carnegies, and its ruins remain part of the island’s historic district today. In 1996, John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette in a small ceremony on Cumberland Island and held the wedding reception at Greyfield. The Carnegie family still owns and runs the inn, reachable only by private boat, with just fifteen rooms across the main house and two cottages.