Siesta Key,  and Longboat Key

Our Town History

The Federal Building on Orange Ave.  in Sarasota is one of the rare fine pieces of architecture left in the area.

In the early 1900's you could stay at the Palms Hotel in downtown Sarasota. Photo: Courtesy Sarasota Historical Dept.

Thompson's contributions to Sarasota
Mark D. Smith, archivist

At the turn of the 20th century, Sarasota was a small fishing village with just a few hundred people. Even though the area was primitive, Sarasota was attracting people who saw the area's potential. Charles N. Thompson was such a person.

Thompson was the manager of the Sells-Forepaugh Circus in the mid 1890s. Over his career, Thompson was manager of Hegenback and Wallace Circus, Sells Brothers Circus, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and the Ringling Brothers Circus, which he managed for six years.

Thompson had heard stories from his friend, H.C. Butler, about how wonderful Sarasota was. Butler had built a winter home in the Indian Beach area in 1891. Thompson said that he was interested and would visit the area during the circus winter season.

In the winter of 1895, Thompson and his wife traveled to Tampa. They wanted to see what their friend Butler was talking about. Thompson rented a boat and left Tampa Bay for Sarasota Bay. He docked at the Butler dock and stayed with the Butlers while looking the area over. Butler told him of a 154 acre track just north of Indian Beach, owned by Anna M. Clark, which was for sale for $1,650. Thompson bought it and later bought 30 acres more.

The following winter Thompson and his wife came to Sarasota and began to build their winter home. Thompson would talk about his winter home throughout the circus world. Being friends with the Ringling Brothers, he would boast of his home in Sarasota.

Ralph Caples, agent for the New York Central Railroad, also owned land in Sarasota. On Nov. 3, 1911, Caples bought the Thompson home and some additional land. Caples sold the Thompson estate less than three months later to John Ringling.

After selling his home, Thompson built a second home next to it. He sold other sections of his land to Charles Ringling in 1915. Ultimately he sold the site of his second home to Charles Ringling so that he could build a home for his daughter, Hester Ringling Sanford.

Thompson had many interests in Sarasota and one was land development. In 1914, he began plans for a new subdivision for the African-American community called Newtown. According to Karl Grismer's "The Story of Sarasota," Thompson and his son Russell "began developing the subdivision of Newtown, not to make money but to provide the blacks with better places to live. Previously their principal living quarters had been in the Overton district (today's 6th Street and Lemon Ave). The rundown buildings were, in his mind, a disgrace to Sarasota."

The Sarasota Times reported on April 22, 1915, that "240 lots with streets have been laid out and sales are on easy cash payments. Already 132 lots have been sold and half dozen houses built. Lots have been donated for a Methodist and Baptist church and school house, the deeds to be given whenever the buildings are erected. Newtown is the name of this subdivision which is exclusively for the colored people, who intend to erect homes there as fast as their means will allow."

Thompson continued to develop his interests in Sarasota until his death in 1918. Although not as well known as the Ringlings and Caples today, Thompson played a pivotal role in the development of early Sarasota.

Sarasota's  Wilson house

Lorrie Muldowney, historic preservation specialist

Tucked away on the southeast corner of Ringling Boulevard and S. Orange Avenue is a small unassuming house that rests in the shadow of Sarasota's recently restored Federal Building. When the home was purchased in 1907, as a residence for Dr. Cullen Bryant "C.B." Wilson and his wife Fannie, the Federal building did not yet exist among the scattered residences of S. Orange Avenue.

The house was constructed in 1906 and quite likely designed by architect Edgar Ferdon, who was practicing in Sarasota in the early part of the 20th century. The building was enlarged in 1913 with a roof top addition to create a full second story which according to family members was used to house seriously ill patients. When the second story was added to the building, the chimneys at each end of the structure were retained but mostly enclosed within the second story. Today these chimneys are only visible at the apex of the roof and appear as bands of cast stone and brick.

The house is notable for its long association with the Wilson family and use of pressed stone, a precursor to today's concrete block. Pressed stone, sometimes called rusticated block, was frequently manufactured on-site with portable molds. Although this material is evident in a number of early Sarasota homes, the stone on the Wilson house is unique for its larger size.

Dr. Wilson was a lifetime resident of Sarasota, born in 1878 in old Miakka, the son of state senator Augustus Wilson and Callie Crum Wilson. Augustus Wilson moved to Old Myakka in 1877 from Polk County. After his arrival he served as the first postmaster in what is now Sarasota County, as well as an Indian Agent for the State of Florida. Perhaps most significant, Augustus Wilson was the Florida Senator who introduced the bill to create Sarasota County in 1921.

Dr. Wilson was educated at the Florida Military Institute, the University of Florida and the University of Alabama Medical School. He married Fannie Reaves, daughter of C.L. and Martha Tatum Reaves of Fruitville in 1904 and began his medical practice in Sarasota in 1906, one of the first physicians to practice in the area. He served on the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital from the time of its founding in 1924 to the time of his death in 1941.

An article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in February of 1941 at the time of his death described Wilson as a man and as a physician who "enjoyed the respect and confidence of everyone." The article continued by stating that "the old time family doctor held in high esteem and today largely cherished as a memory was exemplified in his practice of medicine." His son Dr. Reave Wilson continued the family's medical practice after World War II.

Today the house is at a significant crossroads, located on a site slated for development, its future is uncertain. If it cannot be retained on-site the only hope for its preservation may be relocation. An appeal for its preservation has been made to the City of Sarasota Planning Board and Historic Preservation Board by Wilson family member and local attorney, Clyde H. Wilson Jr. who has enlisted the assistance of the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation.

The home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is being offered for free to a qualified applicant. For more information, call Joel Freedman, at 955-9088.

For additional information on this subject or another relating to Sarasota County's history, call 861-1180. The History Center is located at 701 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236.

Horses may be faster on U.S. 41.

-- Ann Shank, Sarasota County History Center

COURTESY ART / SARASOTA COUNTY HISTORY
CENTER "Engraving of North Florida Natives" by Theodor De Bry in 1591 is based on drawings of the French explorer Jacques LeMoyne in 1564.

As we face the daily challenge of heavy automotive traffic, it stretches the imagination to envision a day when a horse provided the fastest land transportation. Before Sarasota County came into existence in 1921, blacksmiths, horseshoers, and livery stables provided the services comparable to those of today's service station and car rental agency.

Alex Browning, one of the colonists who came from Scotland in 1885 to settle the new town of Sarasota, included in his later memoirs a variety of anecdotes that reflect the early transportation system.
 

Soon after the arrival of the colonists, Ham Whitaker (whose parents, William and Mary, are considered the first white settlers of present Sarasota County) built a livery stable on the corner of Main and Palm, where Sarasota News and Books is now. That is where the Manatee County sheriff would board his horse (and charge the town for the cost) when he was called in to deal with "serious trouble." It is also where Browning "hired" a horse for his first trip to (then) Braidentown with a friend, Art Jones. Along the way Jones engaged in a race with some others they met along the trail. Jones, on his Cuban pony, won.
 

Within a few years, the front of the livery stable was converted into a pool room. Young women would gather there in the evenings to watch the young men play, until one night when Hugh Browning shot an alligator and dragged it in front of the pool room door. In his memoirs, Alex recalled that the women "squealed" when they stepped on the dead gator and never returned to the pool room at night.

A young man's horse was as identifiable as his car is today. Browning knew that Emile Whitaker was visiting Browning's sisters whenever he saw Whitaker's horse "Jeff" outside the family home.
 

Sarasota's first post office was located in Charles Abby's store south of Hudson Bayou and west of the Osprey road. After the colonists arrived, they pressed for the post office to be moved to Main Street. With the move, the mail no longer came to Sarasota by boat, but instead came by horse and buggy from the community of Manatee three days a week. There were no bridges, so the driver would ford creeks at the shallowest places. Even then, the water might rise above the buggy's floor and the driver would stand on the seat to keep dry.
 

Browning recalled some less desirable events of the horse and buggy days. "Occasionally a bunch of cowboys would get lit up on sugar cane skimmings and ride up and down the street, shooting pistols from their galloping horses, using all kinds of foul language."

The local prankster, "Old Man Bacon," engineered a more benign event. He used Jack Tatum's blacksmith shop as the source of brass filings, which he used to trick the townspeople into thinking there was gold underground. When an artesian well was being dug at Five Points (the intersection of Main, Pineapple, and Central), people found glittering "gold" specks in the sludge. The gold fever faded as word spread that the gold was actually brass filings that Bacon had scattered on the ground.

Dr. C.B. Wilson brought the first automobile to town in 1907. The horseless carriage gradually replaced its predecessor, but even through the Boom period of the 1920s, the local directories listed blacksmiths among the businesses that served the community.

For additional information on this subject or another relating to Sarasota County's history, call 861-1180. The History Center is located at 701 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236.

 Sarasota's historic architecture

Lorrie Muldowney,Historic Preservation Specialist

Sarasota County has a rich legacy of historic architecture beginning with the simple frame vernacular structures of our post civil war settlement era and culminating, with the World War II era Sarasota School of Architecture movement.

Sarasota's earliest rural buildings, were executed as simple wood frame vernacular structures. The frame vernacular style was the common wood frame construction of self taught builders, often passed from one generation to the next. Early examples like the Tatum House, now located at Crowley Museum and Nature Center were constructed using rough hewn siding, simple wooden windows, and large porches with broad overhangs to provide shade.

In town, buildings constructed before the turn of the century -- like the Bidwell-Wood house located today on Florida Avenue -- exhibit stylistic influences not seen in the simpler, rural architecture. These stylized details include steeply pitched roofs and cross gables reflecting the popular Gothic Revival Style of the time. Another example of an early 'stylized' building is the Guptill House located at Historic Spanish Point which features modest Queen Anne detailing including decorative shingle accents.

By the 1920's Sarasota architecture moved away from wood frame vernacular to embrace the exotic revivals of the 1920's Florida Land Boom. The roots of Mediterranean-influenced architecture in Florida can be traced to the Spanish, Italian Renaissance, and Moorish Revival churches and hotels in St. Augustine developed by Henry Flagler and others during the 1880's. Best described as the Mediterranean Revival Style, examples can be found throughout the county and display influences from the Mission, Moorish, Monterrey and Italian Renaissance styles. Many residences were built in this style from simple bungalows to John Ringling's mansion Ca' d'Zan.

Equally popular, was the simple bungalow which arrived in the U.S. from East Asia in the early 1900's. During the first three decades of the twentieth century the bungalow became the most common style of residential architecture in the United States. Sarasota bungalows are modest in size when compared to examples found in California. They are characterized by a horizontal emphasis, with large front porches and exaggerated porch piers.

After the end of the land boom in the late 1920's limited construction occurred in Sarasota until the World War II era. Residential design during the period was simply executed with available materials and little design influence, or relied heavily on borrowed revival styles particularly the Classical and Colonial Revival styles.

Most recently Sarasota's modern architectural movement, the Sarasota School of Architecture, has garnered attention in the popular press. A notable example of the style is Jack West's Sarasota City Hall located at 1565 First St. Characterized by the extensive use of glass to create transitional indoor/outdoor spaces, and broad building overhangs and site planning to maximize shade. The style dominated Sarasota architecture from 1941 to 1966.

Both the earliest frame vernacular style and the latest regional modern movement are distinguished by designs that were executed in harmony with nature, using native materials, site planning, and design to celebrate the virtues of a Florida lifestyle.

For more information on Sarasota's architectural styles and appropriate rehabilitation treatments, consult Sarasota's Design Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Structures available at the Sarasota County History Center.

Once popular Hover Colony has long been forgotten

Ann Shank,

Sarasota County History Center

In the early 1900s, if groups of people came to the Sarasota Bay region for the
winter from the same family or location, they were sometimes called "colonies." One of those was the Hover Colony, which included members of the Hover family from Lima, Ohio.

Dr. William E. Hover was the first of his family to visit Florida, having come in 1902 to clear a throat infection. Two years later, he sailed south from Tampa and found land along Roberts Bay, 80 acres of which he purchased for $550.

Two brothers, a sister, two cousins and their families followed. Together, the extended family owned about 100 acres between what is now the Landings and the Field Club in Sarasota. Pine and citrus groves were on the back of the property. The cleared front of the property contained the family's five houses along the bayfront and a dock. The homes faced the bay because at the time they were built, most travel to and from them was by boat. A 1910 news article noted that the Hovers' 28-foot launch, powered by a 7-horse power engine, aided the brothers in their numerous fishing trips to the Gulf.

Typically, members of the Hover Colony arrived in Sarasota by train after the Christmas holiday and stayed through April. (Some of the Sarasota Times' announcements of the family's arrival describe their coming by private rail car.) Mary Dille, whose mother was the Hover sister, later remembered that on her first trip to Sarasota in 1906, her family got off the train at Main Street and walked through the sand to the dock and the family boat.

Although their contemporaries knew them as the Hover Colony, later residents recognized the Hover family name because of the Arcade building, which included Sarasota City Hall from 1917 to 1967.

In 1911, William, Oscar and Frank Hover purchased the pier at the foot of Main Street from Harry Higel, early Sarasota mayor and real estate developer, for $5,000. They widened and lengthened the pier and introduced some commercial enterprises, including a machine shop, oil tanks and a fish supply shop.

In 1913, they built the $20,000 arcade, a two-story structure of yellow brick with red tile roofing. Two 40-foot towers flanked the archway through which one could drive from Main Street onto the dock. Dave Broadway's restaurant and ice cream parlor occupied the northern part of the ground floor and the Lyric Theater occupied part of the southern portion. The second floor housed offices.

By 1916, the Sarasota
City Council recognized the need for a city dock, but realized there was no appropriate land available. With voter approval of a bond issue, the following year they purchased the Hover Brothers' pier and Arcade for $40,000.

Initially, city government offices left their rented locations and created City Hall in the Hover Arcade. Four years later, the city fire department moved in, along with administrative and judicial offices for the newly established Sarasota County government. Reflecting the rapid population growth during the 1920s, county offices moved out of the Hover Arcade to temporary quarters and then permanently to the 1927 courthouse, and city offices expanded into the whole building.

In the late 1920s, William, Oscar and Frank Hover made their Sarasota homes their permanent residences. By the time the Hover Arcade was demolished in 1967, these founders of the Hover Colony had died.

After fill had been added to the bayfront to provide space for the construction of Bayfront Drive, the arcade no longer provided the connection between bay and city and no longer provided sufficient space for City Hall. What had been a well-known name in the first quarter of the century then faded from the public consciousness.
 

Crosley's estate linked to several owners

 Norm Luppino, chairman,

Crosley Estate Foundation

The secluded bayfront property in south Manatee County known as Seagate is celebrated as the site where Powel Crosley Jr. built his palatial winter estate in 1929. One of the 20th Century's greatest entrepreneurs, Crosley owned the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and was a pioneer in the manufacturing of radios, compact cars and the Shelvador refrigerators.

Before Crosley's association, this site attracted another nationally prominent citizen and was once envisioned to be an exclusive residential suburb.

Crosley's 63-acre estate was part of a 279-acre tract that extended north to what is presently Whitfield Estates.

In 1915 it was purchased by Bertha Palmer, one of the nation's wealthiest and most prominent citizens. Bertha was the widow of famed Chicago businessman Potter Palmer, who was the namesake for the renowned Palmer House Hotel.

An enormously successful business person in her own right, Bertha was an early Sarasota pioneer and a large land owner whose name today is linked with Palmer Ranch and Historic Spanish Point. Bertha died in 1918 and never utilized the property for any known purpose.

During the 1920s Florida Land Boom, the property became one of the most sought after pieces of real estate in the area. After Bertha's estate sold it in May 1924, a buying and selling frenzy ensued in which incredible profits were made.

A Chicago lawyer purchased the property for $120,000 and declined a profit of $50,000 the next day, selling it 50 days later to a Lakeland group for $279,000. One month later, it was sold to a Tampa corporation for $450,000.

By early 1925, the property's value had been driven so high that the 279-acre tract was divided into three parcels to make it more marketable. Each fronted Sarasota Bay and extended across the Tamiami Trail.

The southern 63-acre parcel, which Crosley would later acquire, was purchased by a development team in late 1925 for slightly more than $365,000.

At $5,800 per acre, it was reported to be the highest price paid for a bayfront parcel to date. Plans were announced for the development of the most magnificent subdivision this section had ever seen.

Seagate was selected as the name for the venture because it expressed in a single word the beauty of the property's land and water. The subdivision was promoted nationally as "Sarasota's most aristocratic suburb."

Things did not go as planned, however. Construction to widen the Tamiami Trail from nine feet to two lanes severely hindered the ability to develop and market Seagate. Just when the road was completed in the fall of 1926, the land boom suddenly collapsed.

Except for the erection of a sign along the Tamiami Trail and some site clearing, no other development occurred. The property went into foreclosure and was sold at auction in 1928 to the Tampa corporation who had previously divided it.

Powel Crosley Jr. purchased the 63-acre parcel in May 1929 for the reported price of $35,000 -- less than 1/10th what it sold for three years earlier. One month later, construction of Crosley's 18-room winter estate commenced.

Crosley's mansion, featuring the newly restored and decorated second floor, is opened to the public Tuesday through Dec. 10 for "Holidays at the Crosley, a Festival of Trees."

Dozens of beautifully decorated Christmas trees, entertainment, antique Crosley automobiles (weekend only) and Crosley radios, gift boutique, bayside café, and a vintage railroad display will be featured.

Admission is $5 with proceeds used to restore the mansion. Call 722-3244 for information.

Sarasota's  Drive-In Theater

Mark D. Smith, archivist

America's love affair with the drive-in theater began in the 1930s. The first drive-in theater was invented by Richard M. Hollingshead of New Jersey.

Hollingshead began experimenting with the idea at his home by hanging a sheet for a screen in his backyard. He mounted a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and placed a radio behind the screen for sound. He tested the sound with the car windows up and down and simulated weather conditions, like using a lawn sprinkler to simulate a rainstorm.

One problem that did arise was that if the cars were parked behind each other, the rear cars would not be able to see the whole picture. To fix this problem, Hollingshead lined up the cars in his driveway at various distances and placed blocks under their front wheels. By doing this he was able to find the correct spacing and angles to build ramps for the car front tires to park on. He received a patent for the first drive-in Theater on May 16, 1933.

Drive-ins began appearing in Florida in 1938. The first one in the state was the Miami Drive-In, which opened on Feb. 25, 1938. The next one to open in the state was the Atlantic Drive-In in Jacksonville on Dec. 6, 1939.

Although the idea was catching on in the early 1940s, World War II curtailed the building of new drive-ins. After the end of the war, the number of drive-ins nationwide went from 105 in 1946 to 820 in 1948. The era of the drive-in was beginning and would reach its peak in the late 1950s.

Sarasota built its first drive-in in 1949 with the opening of the Trail Drive-In on the North Tamiami Trail, across from the Sarasota Bradenton Airport. The Trail Drive-In touted itself as one of the largest drive-ins in the Southeast in 1951.

It had the capacity for 780 cars and showed only first-run pictures of the "highest quality." In an ad in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Nov. 20, 1949, the Trail Drive-In was described as "one of the finest projection rooms in the nation. The screen impression, located 265 feet from the projection room is clear, sharp and light. The lounges are immaculate and a modern snack bar serves chicken and shrimp dinners for your refreshment." The screen measured 65 feet by 47 feet and was the largest in the south.

The Trail Drive-In stressed family entertainment by providing playgrounds for the kids and talent shows. The theater would open early so families would make an evening of it. One ad in the Sarasota Journal in the mid-1950s stated that the "whole family likes the Trail Drive-In Theater because Mom can leave her girdle at home; Dad likes to smoke big black cigars and he will hear no complaints at the Drive-In; baby sleeps in the back seat with all the comforts of home; brother likes grub with his entertainment and the Drive-In theater is less costly."

Drive-in Theaters peaked in the late 1950s, with more than 4,000 drive-ins in the United States and Canada. However, the '60s and '70s brought a slow but steady decline to the drive-in theater business.

Many blamed the introduction of daylight savings time and the end of the "baby boom" for declining revenues. Others began showing "B" movies and X-rated features which catered to teen and adult audiences. The '80s brought cable TV and the introduction of the VCR, which kept people at home. Many theater owners, sensing that their time had passed, began selling land to developers.
 

The Trail Drive-In closed in the '80s and stood vacate for years. Today it is a site of a new hotel and storage facility.

For additional information on this subject or another relating to Sarasota County's history, call 861-1180. The History Center is at 701 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236.

Scott led Manatee County's electric industry

-- Alice Myers, historian: Palmetto Historical Commission

Scott Electric was one of Manatee County's first full-service electric stores. Clarence B. Scott was the first electrician to display electric light fixtures.

He and his men could wire your house, business or packinghouse for electricity, install your first electric lights, and supply and service your refrigerators, stoves, water heaters and small appliances.

With the invention and development of new electrical products, Scott's, as the business was known, was among the first with radios, television sets, and air conditioners.

Clarence was a son of the Rev. Sam Scott and his wife Sara. When Scott was transferred from Bradenton to another Methodist Church, and eventually would build the First Methodist Church in Sarasota, his son decided to stay in Manatee County.

Clarence Scott was a pioneer in the telephone and electrical business. As a very young man, he helped string the early telephone lines in Palmetto and Bradenton.

He was one of the first telephone switchboard operators in Palmetto. Men operated the switchboards at night. It was on that switchboard that he heard the voice of Mary "Miriam" Pollard, and a courtship followed.

They were married on Feb. 6, 1912. He delivered mail by bicycle, and became the assistant postmaster. He used that bicycle as he began to work as an electrician.

From the time Clarence opened the doors of his first Scott Electric in 1916, Mary worked with him. She handled the telephone and clerked in the store.

Their store was always near the center of town. It was first located on Fourth Street, then Old Main Street.

When Highway 41, the Tamiami Trail, moved to Eighth Avenue, Clarence moved too, erecting a new building for his store, renting part of the building to Robert Kemp for his grocery store and later as office space to the Tresca and Moore Insurance Agency. For a while he also had a store in Bradenton.

For many years before the Manatee County School Board was established, Scott, D.M. Courtney, O.C. McLean and others served as the Palmetto School Board. They built the new Palmetto High School on its Ninth Avenue site now occupied by the Palmetto Elementary School complex.

Clarence Scott and his family supported the public school system in many ways. Every Palmetto High School yearbook carried a Scott Electric ad, often featuring a senior such as Peggy Wingate -- whose picture is shown here in the 1962 yearbook.

Young men began lifelong careers in radio and electronics working for Scott Electric. Others tell similar stories. Often hanging in the shop was a cast net sportsman Clarence Scott was making for some friend or he was teaching some young man to make.

The Scott family made many contributions to their community and county. They were known as caring people. They had the same customers for generations.

One single mother told me how badly she wanted a television set for Christmas for her son. Her income was the family's only income. She went to Scott telling him she could not make a down payment, but she had a tax refund payment coming and if he would let her take the TV for her son's Christmas, she would immediately pay him in full when the refund came. There was a happy Christmas and the debt was promptly paid.

Scott Electric served the community almost 76 years. 100-year-old Clarence Scott died on January 29, 1992, just nine days shy of their 80th wedding anniversary. His beloved Mary followed him in death on July 22 of that year. Later that year when Scott Electric closed, it was the oldest business in Palmetto and quite probably the oldest in Manatee County.

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