St. Simons is a barrier island in the Golden Isles with Atlantic beach along one side and the Frederica River on the other, reached from Brunswick over the F. J. Torras Causeway. From I-95 you come off at Exit 29 or Exit 38 and pick up US 17 toward the causeway. The beach is easy to get to: Massengale Park at 1350 Ocean Boulevard is one of the public accesses, with picnic tables, grills, a playground and restrooms.
The island has been fought over and built on for three centuries. James Oglethorpe built Fort Frederica and the town beside it here in 1736, and the archaeological remains of both are preserved as a National Monument, listed on the National Register in 1966. The lighthouse standing today dates from 1872 and was listed with its keepers’ building in 1972. The World War II Home Front Museum, in the former Coast Guard station listed in 1998, covers coastal defense and the Liberty ships built up the river at Brunswick, and the King and Prince Hotel was listed in 2005.
The Harrington School was built in the 1920s for the island’s African American communities, and it has been restored as a cultural center and museum, one of the few places where that part of the island’s history is told on its own ground.
The Census shows an island that people both visit and live on. The 2020 count recorded 14,982 residents and 10,741 housing units in the St. Simons Census-designated place, a boundary that covers most but not all of the island. Of those homes 2,566 were held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, about a quarter, and 7,121 were occupied as somebody’s usual residence.
St. Simons is unincorporated, so the county handles what a city government would elsewhere. Glynn County Schools serves it, running St. Simons Elementary and Oglethorpe Point, and Brunswick Golden Isles Airport is the airport for the Golden Isles.
Sourced: Fort Frederica 1736, National Park Service. Population and housing units, U.S. Census Bureau 2020 count for St. Simons CDP. Register listings and years, National Park Service. Harrington School and Massengale Park, Glynn County. Causeway and highway access, National Park Service and Georgia DOT. Airport, Georgia state tourism. Schools, Glynn County Schools directory. Seasonal use, 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics file, table H5, vacancy status. Occupied housing, the same file, table H3, occupancy status. The CDP boundary does not cover the whole island.