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THE JEWEL Back In Time... By: THOMAS JAMES MANNAUSA
Table of Contents Forward by Thomas James Mannausa Introduction by Jeff LaHurd
Photos from lower Main Street area Photos for fun of notoriety
I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from Larry Kelleher of the Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources whose ongoing help is greatly appreciated. Photos for The Jewel were provided by the Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources, many from the George I. “Pete� Esthus Collection. Photos were also provided from the personal collection of Jeff LaHurd.
Thomas James Mannausa provided by: Giovanni Lunardi Photography
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“Hi there…..” Thank you for both reading and looking through this photo book of The Jewel, Back In Time. The book is a compilation of many photos, with dates and captions, of lower Main Street, Sarasota, Florida. The book’s purpose is to provide you with a memorable set of photographs from today and going back in time to uncover The Jewel project site legacy and its importance to our great City of Sarasota. Each photo was handpicked by me, Tom Mayers (my 27-year-long close friend), and Jeff LaHurd (my new friend and one of the area’s most recognized historians). This endeavor began in the winter of 2013, while I was working on various elements of design and creativity in developing The Jewel. After many sales presentations, it became evident that the location and history of lower Main Street, including Sarasota Bay’s waters edge at Gulf Stream Avenue, were of material interest. Thus, I felt a photo book would best represent the unique site of The Jewel. With this vision in mind, my first call was to Tom Mayers. Tom and I first met at Land’s End on the most northern tip of Longboat Key in 1986. A former Longboat Key Historical Society president, Tom accepted the challenge to assist in my quest to create this photo book. On a bright, sunny morning, Tom and I drove to the Sarasota County History Center. We went through numerous photos and we were both energized. Tom recommended that we solicit the involvement of Jeff LaHurd, author of numerous books and articles on the history of Sarasota, to consult with us. I met with Jeff, and he offered to write for the book a brief history of Sarasota, which follows this forward and to help organize these photos. We all coordinated our efforts with Jason LeFrock, my friend and talented computer/graphics design expert. My hope is that you, your friends and family members will not only enjoy this set of photos, but also gain an understanding of the history and development of The Jewel’s spectacular site at lower Main Street. We also have included a few unique photos “just for the fun of it……” Enjoy the walk back in time... Best Wishes
Thomas James Mannausa
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Introduction by Jeff LaHurd
Directly across the street from the site of The Jewel, on lower Main Street, Gillespie built the De Soto Hotel. At three stories tall, it offered guests thirty rooms, a wraparound porch with rocking chairs, and an enclosed observation area with wonderful bay views. Hand tinted postcards of the day have the hotel painted Flagler Yellow, and Gillespie saw this as the community’s hallmark—a fine hotel for the upper classes which would set Sarasota apart and above the other area settlements and lodging certain to beckon tourists and help insure Sarasota’s success.
The Early Years “We will lay out the town of Sarasota from
On February 27, 1887, the DeSoto Hotel opened with grand fanfare. Practically everyone in the county attended. A fiddler, guitarist, and pianist provided dance music, which included flings, round dances and waltzes. Alex Browning remembered that Anna Whitcomb and her sister, Sue, sang as did Mr. Purdy and some of the other guests. The affair went on until the next morning and the last song was “Good Night Ladies.” Historian Karl Grismer wrote, “It was reported that many of the men who celebrated didn’t sober up until two days later.” Shortly after the hotel opened the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company published a promotional booklet which invited, “Come to Sara Sota, where we think, can be seen the prettiest place on the coast of America …” After the initial flurry, building activity came to an end; the workers left town looking for new opportunities in other parts of the state. The influx of tourists counted on to fill the hotel did not arrive in the hoped-for numbers, making it difficult to keep open—at least at first. But Sarasota had the ingredients to be a successful community: the virginal tropical beauty, the weather, the Gulf of Mexico, sugar sand beaches, and its long recognized crown jewel, Sarasota Bay.
this hub.” Richard Paulson, chief engineer for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company, speaking at Five Points to his crew in 1885. On a late Wednesday afternoon, in late December of 1885, over 125 years ago, a weary boatload of travelers steamed into Sarasota Bay near the site of today’s Marina Jack expecting to find a small community to settle into a comfortable life, harvesting gold from citrus trees. They were mostly Scots and a few Englishmen totaling approximately 60 men, women and families who had sold their homes and businesses and their life’s accumulation of worldly goods, keeping only what they could transport to Sarasota to start their lives anew. They had been promised a “little Scotland” awaited them across the ocean in faraway Florida. The streets were named after the fruits that were supposed to be so easy to grow: Orange, Lime, Lemon, Banana, Kumquat, Pineapple and Strawberry—underscoring the notion that the colonists could easily become gentlemen farmers.
Sarasota was still a challenge to reach. Water was the most expedient route with small steamers like the Mistletoe and Vandalia running between Sarasota, Braidentown and Tampa. Gillespie decided train travel was a necessity and to that end opened rail service between Braidentown and Sarasota. At best this was a primitive railroad with seating on uncomfortable wooden benches on a flatbed car, the second-hand engine belching fire and smoke as it lumbered along. It made the trip only when there were enough passengers or freight to make the journey financially worthwhile for the engineer. Elmer G. Sulzer in his Ghost Railroads of Sarasota County described a typical trip, “As the train plodded towards Sarasota, the cars rocked so badly that the dinner pail belonging to conductor Lou Duckwall rolled off of the coach. After he missed it he had the engineer back up the train approximately 4 miles so he could fetch it.” Dubbed the “Slow and Wobbly,” the railway lasted only a few years and folded.
After a rough Atlantic crossing on the S.S. Furnessia that lasted two weeks due to a broken piston, the Colony disembarked at New York, did some sightseeing, then boarded the S.S. State of Texas to Fernandina; to Cedar Key by way of narrow gauge train, and, finally, by small steamer to what they believed was the promised land. Even before they stepped ashore on planks laid out into Sarasota Bay, they knew they had been duped. The only building available was a rundown fish processing plant that the Florida Mortgage Investment Company used as the company store. It was situated on the corner of Gulf Stream Avenue and Main Street, the site of today’s The Jewel. As Alex Browning, a young member of the group put it, “Of course there was much discontent, being dumped like this, in a wild country, without houses to live in; tired and hungry, one can imagine what it was like.”
True to his Scottish heritage, Gillespie brought his golf clubs with him to Sarasota, first setting up a two-hole practice course near his home and in 1905 opening a true 9-hole course, complete with club house. He was considered an excellent golfer and traveled around the state preaching the virtues of golf as a major tourist draw. His was the first course in Florida and one of the first courses in the country. That golf would provide a boost to tourism was not lost on the town’s leaders. Harry Higel, developer of Siesta Key, warned, “The tourists will not come to Sarasota unless we have a golf course because every town in Florida is getting golf links.” The Sarasota Times intoned, “A golf less tourist resort in Florida is in much the same class as a production of Hamlet with the star character left out.” Upon learning that legitimate train service was coming to Sarasota, the community felt confident enough about its future to incorporate as a town. On October 14, 1902, fifty-three men gathered for the vote and elected John Hamilton Gillespie as the town of Sarasota’s first mayor. For the town motto the men chose the hopeful and prophetic, “May Sarasota Prosper.”
They saw only mangroves, palmettos, scrubland and a few small dilapidated buildings and realized that the modern town of Sarasota existed only in the imaginations of pamphlet writers and as lines on a town plat. Milling around and commiserating with one another a member of the colony asked a settler about the farming potential of the land: “Waal,” the old cracker drawled, “What the drouth don’t kill, the sand flies get and what they leave the red ants get.” Unlike the hardy settlers who dotted the area before the colony arrived, and knew how to handle the harsh realities of day to day living, the Scots were completely unprepared, and unsuited to deal with life in what was still considered America’s last frontier. Within a few months, the disillusioned colony disbanded and went their separate ways, some back to Scotland, most to other parts of America and Florida.
The United States and West Indies Railroad and Steamship Company, later known as the Seaboard Air Line Railway, laid tracks from Tampa to Sarasota. Indeed train service reduced the community’s isolation and provided the impetus for growth. Three years later, in 1905, an optimistic Gillespie built a two-story, rusticated brick building at Five Points, on the southwest corner of Pineapple Avenue and Main Street (Zenith is there today) and induced a Tampa banker to open a branch. In the same building he provided books from his private collection to open a library and also conducted his business in the building. Later the Gillespie Building would become Badger’s Drugs, known affectionately as “The Store of the Town.” A half a block north of The Jewel, Gillespie built another rusticated block building known as The Halton, which was used as a sanitarium and hotel offering tennis, croquet, and boats for bay fishing or sightseeing.
The Florida Mortgage and Investment Company still had 50,000 acres of land to sell and in 1886 sent John Hamilton Gillespie, the son of the company’s president, to revive the effort. Gillespie quickly set about the task of putting into place the necessary infrastructure. He was a large man, standing over 6 feet tall and weighing nearly 250 pounds. He was 34 years old when he arrived. He began grubbing the streets, building a public trough at the center of Five Points (Sarasota’s first roundabout), adding wooden sidewalks on the north side of Main Street from Palm Avenue to Five Points, planting shade producing oak trees along the way, placing a decorative fountain at Main Street and Palm Avenue, and constructing his home with a spectacular waterfront view on Palm Avenue a block south of The Jewel. He christened his homestead Palm Place. 3
Moving Forward “This is what I want for my old age…Oh! Words
The Big Boom “When the boom was at its peak there were checks
cannot paint the scene—imagination cannot conceive of such grandeur.” Davie Lindsay Worcester describing Sarasota after a trip to Bird Key, ca. 1909.
by every cash register, smiles on every face, money in every pocket…people bought everything they could find to buy.” Roger Flory, realtor
As Sarasota continued to progress, two major events occurred in 1910 that would accelerate the community’s success. First, in February, Bertha Honore Palmer arrived. Known as the Queen of Chicago society, the widow of wealthy merchant Potter Palmer, she was prominent in America and abroad and an astute businesswoman. A blind advertisement in a Chicago paper, placed by local landowner J.H. Lord and real-estate man A.B. Edwards, piqued her interest, and primed by Lord who met her at his Chicago office, she and her party came for a look-see.
A.B. Edwards reflected, “Ordinarily it would have taken one hundred years for the average American city to acquire the same amount of public and private improvements as did Sarasota during that two and a half year boom period.” Historian Grismer put the number of years at fifty. In either case a Cinderella-like transformation occurred in an amazingly brief period of time. What Sarasota desperately needed were first-class accommodations to attract the rich and famous, a shortcoming that was not lost on the leaders of the community. This deficiency was rectified by Andrew McAnsh, a Scot, then living in Chicago. He promised that in return for building a luxury hotel, Sarasota would grant him certain concessions—no taxes on the property and free electricity and water for 10 years. The city council agreed. McAnsh was given a rousing welcome when he came to Sarasota to consummate the deal. The fire siren wailed, whistles went off and horns blared, “Welcoming McAnsh as one of the most important developers to come to the city,” said the Times, who hyped him as “priceless to any community where he determines to start any construction.”
This was recognized as a momentous occasion for the town, and her train was met by a swarm of happy locals. Edwards, the city’s first mayor, referred to it as the most important event in Sarasota’s history. He escorted the Palmer entourage in his horse and buggy while they marveled at the pristine loveliness of the area. Captivated by Sarasota Bay, she remarked it was more beautiful than the Bay of Naples. She invested heavily in the area, and built Spanish Oaks as her winter retreat in Osprey. The Palmer Bank at Five Points became the county’s flagship bank, while the Palmer Farmers Growers Association was one of the largest operations of its kind in Florida. She also developed Meadow Sweet Pastures ranch in Myakka and introduced tick eradication measures that were new to the area. Lastly, Palmer set up a “Chicago connection” between the Windy City and Sarasota that continues to this day. Many wealthy visitors and capitalists followed her and saw in Sarasota both the perfect winter retreat and the potential for development on a grand scale.
His first project was the Mira Mar (Spanish for Sea View) Apartments on South Palm Avenue, in those days offering an unobstructed view of Sarasota Bay. Construction began on October 6, 1922, and, working round the clock, the project was completed in just sixty days and was known thereafter as the 60 day wonder.
Foremost among these was Owen Burns, who was living in Chicago at the time of Palmer’s visit. For the city of Sarasota in general and downtown Sarasota in particular, the arrival of Burns in May of 1910 spelled the beginning of a new era. Burns negotiated with Gillespie to buy out the remaining holdings of the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company for $35,000 and at once became owner of approximately 75 percent of today’s city limits. When the Burns/Gillespie transaction was completed, the Sarasota Times reported, “A very important real estate deal has been completed this week, by which Mr. Owen Burns, a wealthy banker from Chicago, who has been for some time a guest at The Halton has purchased all the real estate belong to Col. J.H. Gillespie, including his home place, the bank building, golf grounds, and other valuable property.”
Next was the magnificent Mira Mar Hotel, tagged the “Gem of the West Coast.” It was situated directly behind the apartments and its completion was followed by the adjacent Mira Mar Auditorium. With these three buildings the Sarasota Times enthused, “It is safe to say that the erection of the Mira-Mar Hotel has meant as much to the development of Sarasota as any one enterprise that has yet located here.” Asked why he did not choose a larger city in which to build, McAnsh said of Sarasota, “I liked this town from the first moment I came here. It grows upon me. It is a beautiful city with a bay that is the equal of anything in America and I am sanguine that Sarasota has a great destiny.” Of the moth-to-butterfly transformation that Sarasota was experiencing, the R.L. Polk Directory of 1926 noted: “Two years ago one wooden structure and two smaller hotels were sufficient for the winter trade of Sarasota, and in summer one of the smaller hotels kept open to accommodate the traveling public. There were two small restaurants where you could get a square meal for fifty cents. Today towering structures, built mainly for the tourist trade are filled to overflowing every day in the year and the cry is for more hotels.”
A folksy weekly newspaper, the Sarasota Times had been established here in 1899 by Cornelius and Rose Wilson, keeping citizens up to date with local, state and international news. The paper was located on the north side of lower Main Street a block away from The Jewel where the Two Senoritas restaurant is located today. With each Thursday’s edition, new arrivals to town were reported, along with their hometown, the hotel or boarding house where they were staying, how long they expected to be in town - even their profession. Golf at Gillespie’s 9-hole course offered sports recreation for the tourists as did tennis at The Halton. Fishing was always popular. Musicales were put on at the hotels. At the Belle Haven Inn, Mrs. George L. Whipple provided entertainment that was described as “most enjoyable.” Mrs. Smith regaled the guests with Sweet Genevieve, “a gem of her own composition,” after which the Rev. W.F. Allen sang a solo—this was typical fare. Picnics and church socials were also well attended.
Less luxurious than the fashionable Mira Mar Hotel was the seven-story Hotel Sarasota on the northeast corner of Main Street and Palm Avenue where Clasico Restaurant is today. Built by W.H. Pipcorn, recently of Milwaukee, rooms were priced at $2.50 for a single and $6 for a double with a bath. Pipcorn was the first person to spend $1000 for a front foot for downtown property. Located a block east of The Jewel, in the late 1980s this became the site of NEAL-MANNAUSA, which transformed into T. Mannausa & Co. The name of the 20s-era real estate game was speed. Buy NOW or lose out. This was especially reflected in the grandiose promises of advertisements for housing developments: “Price Climbing let your profits go up with the climb.” “Values are constantly enhancing.” “An Opportunity for Big Profit.” Each and every day the newspapers offered full page opportunities to make big money, and quickly, in real estate. The assertions were bolstered by hundreds of eager real estate agents, swarming throughout the city—they were known as the Knickerbocker Army—who could talk even the most skeptical into taking a binder on a “sure thing.” The A.S. Skinner Real Estate Company, agents for Longboat Shores and Golden Gate Point, bragged that Golden Gate Point had “sold out sometime ago [and] some lots have been sold seven times.” Skinner laid claim to $40,000,000 in business during 1925. The Sarasota Herald reported an increase in property sales of 1000, percent over 1924.
After acquainting himself with his new hometown, Burns aligned himself with the local progressives who saw in Sarasota a beautiful canvas upon which they could paint their dream city. He took over the The Halton which he remodeled into his home, placed his offices in the Gillespie Building and set up several companies to conduct his business ventures. His first housing development, Inwood Park, offered 100 lots for easy terms of $10 down and $2.50 a week. He advertised, “Just now is the time to invest in Real Estate in and around Sarasota. You will never be able to buy Sarasota Real Estate any cheaper than you can today.” Words that could be taken out of today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune. His development was a success. The St. Pete Times reported: “He purchased a tract of earth which the natives considered of little value, filled, graded and ornamented it, cut it up into lots and put down paving—and then the city waked up to find that Owen Burns had made a small fortune and gave Sarasota the greatest boost in the history of that pretty place.” This was the forerunner of a myriad of developments which would follow and gained for Burns the knowledge and skills to prepare for the real estate boom of the 1920s.
A poster boy for the opportunities was Walter V. Coleman, who was said to have left Detroit in 1915 with eighty bucks in his pocket, a wife, five children and “an overpowering 4
ambition.” He platted the Bay Haven subdivision, built the Bay Haven Hotel, and by 1926 was a millionaire. Roger Flory was another who made big money, and quickly. He was a practicing attorney in Chicago, came down to see what the hoopla was about, became involved in real estate and made $10,000 in one weekend. “I made so much money, I decided to stay. Two years later I was broke like everyone else.” This was the era in which John and his brother Charles Ringling played such a defining role in Sarasota’s development. John set his sights on the keys: Lido, St. Armands, and Longboat. Working with Owen Burns, the duo dredged, filled and beautified those areas as well as Golden Gate Point. They dreamed that St. Armands would be transformed into a refuge and shopping Mecca for the rich and famous and worked hard to make the dream a reality.
Corps trainees, whose presence was felt throughout the county. Another training base was located in Venice, and many of the airmen from these bases fell in love with this beautiful area and vowed to return after the war. The Sarasota that came together with such promise during the free-wheeling mid 20s stayed intact until after World War II—a small, beautiful and relaxed community dependent on the tourist trade.
Going Modern “He built the thing from scratch. Sarasota went from
a one-stoplight town to the city it is today.” Senator Bob Johnson, recalling the influence on Sarasota city manager Ken Thompson.
When Burns was not working with Ringling, he was busy in his own right. Even a partial list of his accomplishments is striking. Often pairing with architect Dwight James Baum, he built the 150-room El Vernona Hotel, the largest and most lavish in Sarasota, the Burns office building (later known as the Bickel House), Burns Court bungalows, and Herald Square. He took over the Belle Haven Apartment building and constructed Ca’ d’Zan and the first Ringling Bridge. While John set his development sights on the keys, Charles began developing east of town, platting the Court House Subdivision and building the Ringling Office Building and the Sarasota Terrace Hotel, one of the largest in town. Both of the competitive brothers opened downtown banks, built lavish mansions, owned yachts, and drove expensive cars. But it was John who gave Sarasota its early cultural trappings when he build the John and Mable Ringing Museum of Art which he left to the state of Florida along with Ca’ d’Zan.
In the 1950s, Sarasota began to move forward again with numerous new housing developments, shopping centers, schools, churches, banks, offices, roads and bridges. This time around the growth was not speculative or frenetic as it had been the generation before. It was fueled by retirees looking for their place in the sun and families wanting to build homes and raise their children—not get-rich-quick hopefuls taking a flyer. During this time, two events propelled Sarasota toward the unique, upscale and inviting community so many enjoy today. The first and most important occurred in February 1950 with the swearing in of Ken Thompson as Sarasota’s new city manager. The second was the announcement that Arvida Corporation had purchased the holdings of the John Ringling estate and had grand plans for Bird Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key and St. Armands. An engineer by training, Thompson was a modernist who guided Sarasota more diligently and longer than anyone in the city’s history. Arriving from Miami Beach, he took over the reins of city government and for 38 years molded Sarasota into a spectacular city. The transformation of Sarasota during his tenure was more pronounced than at any time in the city’s history. Thompson’s mantra, “Keep your industry, send us your industrialists,” is obvious in the affluent downtown core, with its epicurean restaurants, galleries, and boutiques. While along the bay front, Sarasota’s crown jewel, there developed an array of upscale condominiums, now including The Jewel, the fabulous yacht basin at Marina Jack, Bay Front Park, and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, a major cultural icon.
Just as the boom was about to fizzle out, Owen Burns opened his El Vernona Hotel, the “Aristocrat of Beauty.” This 150-room Moorish-inspired building assured “it achieved the ambition of the builders—to give Florida her finest hotel.” John Ringling, whose unfinished Ritz-Carlton Hotel languished on Longboat Key, acquired the El Vernona during the Great Depression, and his nephew John Ringling North imbued it with the trappings of the circus. Its name was changed to the John Ringling Hotel, and all manner of Big Top performances were staged in the dining room with the beautiful chandelier which previously hung in the mansion of John Jacob Astor pulled to one side to allow for trapeze acts. The hotel’s M’TOTO Room Lounge (named for the famous circus gorilla) became a popular downtown watering hole. After a stint as the John Ringling Towers, the vacant hotel was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Ritz-Carlton.
The evolution began in earnest in 1957. In an effort to ease the flow of traffic, the State Road Department proposed re-routing U.S. 41, which ran the length of Main Street. The new route diverted it through Luke Wood Park, and along the downtown bay front. Working closely with Thompson and that year’s city commission, construction started late that year, and while the plan was not universally embraced, many saw it as a great way to showcase Sarasota Bay to out of town motorists who might be attracted by its beauty and decide to vacation here or build their homes in Sarasota.
Collapse “The water had been squeezed out of the sponge and the
professional land traders and high pressure guys had moved out much faster than they came in. And the permanent population of about 7,000 of us set about to save what we could out of the wreck.” A.B. Edwards
The state plan also called for the replacement of the first Ringling Bridge, a two-lane wooden structure well beyond its prime, with a modern four-lane version that could whisk motorists to the tropical and inviting keys. On January 10, 1959, the bridge project was completed; hundreds were on hand, along with state and local dignitaries, for the dedication. The Sarasota Herald proclaimed: “CITY’S KEY DREAM BECOMES CONCRETE—BRIDGE IS OPENED.” Another milestone event that year was the announcement by Arvida Corporation that Bird Key, with the Worcester Mansion the only existing residence, would be dredged and filled to accommodate 511 upscale home sites. Arvida’s massive development on Longboat Key followed, and St. Armands soon took on the appearance of the ritzy shopping emporium envisioned the generation before by John Ringling and Owen Burns.
The bright light of the frenetic land boom began to dim in 1926 and in September of that year, when the devastating hurricane blew through Miami, it was lights out; the party was over. Building activity soon tanked (permits dropped from $4.5 million in 1925 to $83,596 in 1929), newcomers slowed, and the throngs of fast talking “binder-boy” real estate salesmen left town. Instead of grandiose descriptions of new buildings, housing developments, and lavish social events, the newspaper was reporting defaults, foreclosures, bankruptcies and receiverships. To help bolster Sarasota’s sagging fortunes, in 1927 John Ringling announced that he was going to make Sarasota the winter headquarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—The Greatest Show on Earth. The move brought jobs, the winter headquarters became a major tourist attraction, and the circus advertised Sarasota as it traveled throughout the nation.
By 1964, a look at the area around Gulf Stream Avenue, where U.S. Highway 41 had been re-routed, would illustrate how much of the old Sarasota was being overshadowed by the new. While the Twenties boom-era buildings were showing their age, the new luxury condominium was a preview of coming attractions. The 10 story Gulf Stream Towers, the first major high-rise building on Gulf Stream Avenue, was designed by noted Sarasota architect Edward J. “Tim” Seibert, with Seibert remarking, “The apartments are designed on the motif of the fashionable apartments that have made up the bay front of Rio de Janeiro.” Other condos would follow, beckoned by the bay front.
Then the stock market crashed in October of 1929, bringing on the Great Depression, and with the rest of the nation, Sarasota went into a malaise that lasted until after World War II. With the help of the 1930s Federal Works Progress Administration, there were some bright spots, including construction of the Municipal Auditorium on the bay front, the Neo-Classical post office on Orange Avenue, and the storied Lido Casino on Lido Beach. These projects, as well as the Civilian Conservation Corp’s work in building Myakka Park, bolstered the local economy and boosted morale.
Another fashionable modernization program was the replacement of the old pier and City Hall building, known as the Hover Arcade, at the end of Main Street on Gulf Stream Avenue adjacent to The Jewel.
During the war years, the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport became the home of 3,500 Army Air 5
Just as the old Mira Mar Hotel on Palm Avenue had signaled the start of the 1920s land boom here, many point to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel as the beginning of the new millennium’s real estate spree. Word that the pinnacle of luxury hotels was coming generated worldwide interest, and when the hostelry opened on November 1, 2001, Sarasota was again in the spotlight as the destination of choice for the world’s rich and famous. (Unfortunately, the new hotel came at the expense of the historic John Ringling Towers, which opened with fanfare equal to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in 1926 as the El Vernona Hotel. Many in the community fought long and hard to save it and were angered that the grand old building and the adjacent Bickel House were sacrificed in spite of their effort.)
What had been the town dock built by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company in 1886, near the spot the Scot Colony waded ashore, had been purchased shortly thereafter by Harry Higel, one of Sarasota’s early developers. In 1905 he offered it for sale to the city for $1,500, but the city council declined. Five years later he offered it to them again, for $5,000, but still they refused. Finally, he sold it to the Hover brothers, winter residents from Lima, Ohio, for $12,500. They improved the property markedly, built the tan brick arcade on it and leased it out to several businesses, including Dave Broadway for a restaurant and another company for the Lyric Theatre to screen “flicks”. By this time Sarasota was desperate for a suitable venue to conduct city business and acquired the building in 1917 for $39,581.34. Under the city’s ownership, the fire department was headquartered there, along with city government offices and, for a brief time after Sarasota County was formed in 1921, the temporary seat of the new county government.
Property values soared and construction throughout the community rivaled that of the free-wheeling 1920s, changing the face of Sarasota every bit as much as during that longago era. Between 2000 and 2005, 788 condo units were completed, 650 more were under construction and another 800 were planned but not approved.
By the 1950s, like the Ringling Bridge, the city hall building was no longer suitable for its intended use, and it was demolished in September of 1967. The city moved into its new headquarters on First Street, designed by renowned Sarasota School of Architecture architect Jack West, which was dedicated on December 12, 1967.
At Five Points, in 1999, where over a century earlier the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company had platted Sara Sota, the bank building that had been home to the Palmer Bank and the Southeast Bank was razed and replaced by the 14 story Plaza at Five Points tower, which was ready for occupancy in 2006.
A first-class marina was high on the list of items sought by the city. In 1963 the commission approved plans for $300,000 to dredge and bulkhead an island near the old pier. This would become the 11-acre, rabbit-leg-shaped peninsula called Island Park, which was completed in 1964. Private capital was expected to help fund a new marina nearby. The adjacent marina, named Marina Mar, was to have 143 boat slips (there are over 300 today), fueling facilities, an upscale restaurant, shops, snack bar, and amenities for boaters. The new marina was intended to, and ultimately did, put Sarasota on the yachtsman’s map. However, Marina Mar, Inc. soon failed and was taken over by businessman Jack Graham, who changed the name to Marina Jack. He called the unique and lovely area, “Sarasota’s front porch,” and ran it successfully for over thirty-three years. Today the facility, greatly expanded and updated, is operated by Bob Soran.
The fast pace of sales was illustrated by the 1350 Condominium at Main Street and Palm Avenue. Built in 2007, 134 units were sold in 90 minutes, before the first shovel of dirt was turned to start construction. The Great Recession ended this boom, but as in previous generations, much had been accomplished. We enter a new period in Sarasota’s history with The Jewel, built on the site of the Scot Colony’s company store, leading the way.
Even with all its cultural offerings, modern Sarasota still lacked a suitable venue to attract live performances by world-class performers and productions. This lack was remedied by the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, which was conceived by Mayor David Cohen, himself a child-prodigy violinist, and marshaled through to completion by Thompson. Designed by William Wesley Peters, head of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Taliesin Associated Design Firm, it opened with suitably grand fanfare on January 5, 1970, with Fiddler on the Roof.
Today “Where urban amenities meet small-town living.” Sarasota’s tag line.
A drive over the once controversial but now universally appreciated Ringling Bridge from St. Armands will reveal what may be the best view of today’s Sarasota—a skyline of banks, offices, hotels and condominiums, with The Jewel standing proudly among them; a testament to the vision of Sarasota’s early leaders, developers and citizens—the town motto of 1902, May Sarasota Prosper, borne out. The bridge has become a Sarasota landmark, but its proposed construction caused a fierce multimillion dollar struggle between the city commission and its anti-bridge allies (who saw it as an eye sore) against the Department of Transportation and those who saw the positive elements of the bridge’s design. Work began in the fall of 2001. The bridge is 3,097 feet long, 107 feet wide and cost a reported $67.7 million. It is expected to last at least 75 years. This, the third John Ringling Bridge, was dedicated on August 30, 2003, with a morning run across the high span, speeches by public officials, a flotilla of boats, a procession of antique cars led by the Sarasota High School marching band, and an evening fireworks display. The acrimonious fight to stop its construction was by then long over, and the citizens joined together to celebrate and move forward. Not visible from the bridge, but nestled among the high-rises, lies the downtown core, with the “small town amenities.” Historic buildings, scenic parks, a well-stocked library, and a myriad of businesses, boutiques and shops of all persuasions fashion downtown Sarasota into a unique and appealing blend of the old and the new.
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Contemporary photos of a modern, vibrant and beautiful downtown Sarasota 9
Marina Jack, the answer to Sarasota’s quest to put the city on the yachtsman’s map.
West along lower Main Street with the T. MANNAUSA signature at the top of the Palm Tower building. Built in 1925 as the Hotel Sarasota.
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The gateway to Sarasota’s popular Island Park. The towers were inspired by the towers of the old Hover Arcade which had been the site of City Hall for many years.
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Looking up lower Main Street toward Five Points. Note that Main Street is one-way, a system established in 1970.
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Aerial by C. Kennedy shows the downtown bay front filling in with condominiums. In the upper right is Bird Key, fully developed with its first generation of homes.
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Downtown Bay Front ca. 1966
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Island Park, the jack rabbit-leg-shaped peninsula which had been dredged and filled just south of the pier and for years was the home of O’Leary’s Sarasota Sailing School, owned by Bill and Lillian O’Leary. For years, Island Park was the perfect site to watch the Ski-A-Rees water show.
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Looking west along the downtown bay front, 1964, with the recently completed Gulf Stream Towers to the right of center. Neither Island Park nor Marina Jack has been developed, but work on both would soon be underway.
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Lower Main Street, from Five Points west, mid-60s. At the end of the street the old Hover Arcade, the site of city hall, still stands, and the Hotel Sarasota is still operating. The businesses to the left will soon be demolished to make way for a downtown parking lot, today the site of the Zenith building.
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The first phase of the Marina Mar (today’s Marina Jack) and Island Park project has been completed in this 1965 photo.
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Main Street and Lime Avenue, ca. 1965. Note the Seaboard Air Line Train, which came to Sarasota in 1903, was still in operation, running through the heart of downtown. Today, this is the site of Mattison’s City Grille.
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Looking east toward Marina Jack and Island Park shortly after it had been filled but not completely landscaped.
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Looking west toward Sarasota Bay, 1960. The white mass at the top of the photo is Bird Key shortly after it was dredged and filled by Arvida Corporation to accommodate 511 home sites. To the right, the recently completed Ringling Bridge stretching from its new starting point, south of Golden Gate Point.
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Sarasota’s downtown bayfront shortly after U.S. 41 had been rerouted along Gulf Stream Avenue in the late 1950s. Note that in the center of the picture, the old Hover Arcade still stands.
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Gulf Stream Avenue in the early 1950s. Notice no Highway US 41.
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Lower Main Street from Five Points ca. 1954. Downtown Sarasota was still the place to go for all the city’s shopping needs.
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The Hover Arcade building, site of City Hall for many years, with its inviting archway leading on to the pier. To the upper right is Golden Gate Point, lined with Australian Pines before development had begun
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A view of Sarasota Bay from the Mira Mar Hotel at Palm Avenue. At the center is the city pier and Hover Arcade; to the far right is the Orange Blossom Hotel, built on the site of the old De Soto Hotel.
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Mid-1940s aerial of the old city pier, a far cry from the yachtsman’s Mecca that it has evolved into.
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This Texaco service station was one of many gas stations that dotted downtown Sarasota when U.S. 41 ran along Main Street. Today this is the site of the popular Bijou CafĂŠ that has operated here since 1986.
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Looking through the arch of the Hover Arcade toward Five Points in the late 1930s. Note the angle parking. To the far left is Virginia Their’s women’s furnishings and the Hemingway Book and Antique Shop, today the site of The Jewel.
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A bustling downtown Sarasota during the 1939 tourist season. Even then, parking was at a premium during tourist season.
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The first John Ringling Bridge was opened in February 1926. As this late 1930s photo shows, it was usually lined with fishermen.
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Golden Gate Point offered a scenic drive to the Ringling Bridge. Dredged by Owen Burns in the mid-20s, it has become a haven for upscale condominiums.
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The building to the left at Main Street and Palm Avenue is the Hotel Sarasota, opened in 1925 by W. H. Pipcorn of Milwaukee. In the center of the photo is the First Bank and Trust, later the Palmer Bank. To the right, shops, stores and offices line the way.
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This 1926 photo shows construction underway for the American National Bank which folded during the Great Depression. In 1937 it was remodeled and reopened as the Orange Blossom Hotel, in use today as the Orange Blossom Tower. The flagpole in the center of Five Points was installed as a tribute to the Sarasota men who had gone off to battle in World War I.
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Docked just north of the city pier in front of the Sunset Apartments, John Ringling’s fabulous yacht Zalophus (Sea Lion). The lavish vessel met an untimely end when it sunk on a cruise to Boca Grande. When Captain Roan was asked what happened, he quipped, “We struck a jelly fish.”
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Sarasota’s Sheriff’s deputies pose next to a captured still. Although Prohibition was the law of the land, alcohol was easy to come by.
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The answer to Sarasota’s quest for world-class hotel accommodations was provided by Andrew McAnsh, who built the Mira Mar Hotel on Palm Avenue. At the time, the hotel offered a lovely view of Sarasota Bay.
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Sarasota’s most lavish hotel, Owen Burns’ El Vernona, opened in 1926. Later the hotel was acquired by John Ringling and re-named the John Ringling Hotel. When demolished in 1998, it was known as the John Ringling Towers.
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The corner of lower Main Street at Palm Avenue as the Hotel Sarasota is under construction. The hotel opened in 1925, becoming Sarasota’s first skyscraper. To the left, the Colonial Hotel, built as the Watrous, was demolished in 1962.
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North Gulf Stream Avenue in the early 1910s. Note the docks jutting out into the bay for fishermen to off-load their catches.
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Looking east on Lower Main Street toward Five Points from Gulf Stream Avenue. To the right is the Belle Haven Inn built by John Hamilton Gillespie as the De Soto Hotel. The empty lot adjacent to the Colonial Hotel is the site of The Jewel.
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Looking north along Gulf Stream Avenue toward the Hover Arcade shortly after the hurricane of October 1921 tore through town, causing the destruction of the local fishing industry.
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A celebratory parade moving up lower Main Street with horns blaring, flags waving, and colorful bunting hanging from downtown buildings. Sarasota had broken away from Manatee and formed its own county effective July 1, 1921.
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Downtown Sarasota just before the 1920s real estate boom, which would transform the community into a desirable destination for wealthy snowbirds. The site of The Jewel is to the bottom left of this photograph.
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Armistice Day 1919 and the town salutes Sarasota’s men who were victorious over Germany.
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The south side of lower Main Street, ca. 1915. The three-story Belle Haven Hotel can be seen to the right. Along the way, a hardware store, grocery store, restaurant, offices, cigar store and drug store.
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Taken from near the site of today’s Marina Jack in 1914, this picture shows the small industries which occupied the city pier. In the center is the rear of the old Hover Arcade, and to the right is the Belle Haven Inn Hotel.
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The Sarasota Woman’s Club was formed in 1913 “for the advancement of womankind in all directions.” The group often hosted costume parties.
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The building to the left at Main Street and South Pineapple Avenue is the Gillespie Building, completed by John Hamilton Gillespie in 1905. To the right is the Tonnelier Building, 1913.
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Located on the northwest corner of Main Street and Palm Avenue, the 34-room Colonial Hotel was built by T.T. Watrous as the Watrous Hotel in 1916 for a reported cost of $35,000. To the left of this hotel is the site of The Jewel.
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Completed in 1912, the three-story Tonnelier Building on the north side of lower Main Street. Advertised as being fire-proof, the building burned to the ground in 1915.
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Horses and buggies still mixed with automobiles in this photo taken from Palm Avenue and Main Street.
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Sarasota townsfolk milling around lower Main Street at the pier and the Belle Haven Inn awaiting the start of a parade in this 1912 photograph. The Jewel site is to the left. Gulf Stream Avenue shown along waters edge.
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The train depot for the Seaboard Air Line Railway station at Lemon Avenue and Main Street.
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Located on Gulf Stream Avenue, another of John Hamilton Gillespie’s rusticated block buildings, The Halton, opened in 1908 and served as a sanitarium and hotel. It was purchased by Owen Burns in 1910 and became the Burns’ family homestead.
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North Gulf Stream Avenue when there were only a few automobiles around town. The first car brought to Sarasota belonged to Dr. Cullen B. Wilson, a 20 horsepower Reo he purchased in Tampa. The trip back took 5 hours.
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Tied up at the pier and about to take on fish, ice and passengers going to Tampa is Harry Higel’s steamer, Vandalia.
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Looking east from a calm Sarasota Bay toward Gulf Stream Avenue and The Halton. The seawall had not yet been built along the bay front.
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Constructed in 1905 by John Hamilton Gillespie, the rusticated block Gillespie Building became the site of Badger’s Drugs. The building remained intact until the 1960s, when it was razed to make a downtown parking lot. Today it is the site of the Zenith building.
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Oak trees line the way along lower Main Street. They had been planted by Gillespie to beautify the area and add shade.
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The second public trough was placed at the center of Main Street and Palm Avenue. The building in the background is The Inn, which in 1894 hosted Sarasota’s first convention, held for members of the Baptist Church.
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Sarasota’s first newspaper, the Sarasota Times, came to town in 1899. This building was located on the north side of lower Main where the Two Senoritas restaurant is today. In the doorway are publisher Cornelius Wilson and his wife, Rose.
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Sarasota in the 1890s. In the center is the dock before improvements were made, and to the right is the site of The Jewel. This building had been an abandoned fish oil plant adapted for use as the company store by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.
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Jutting into Sarasota Bay, the wharf was built in 1886 by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company and kept Sarasota connected to the rest of the world until legitimate train service arrived in 1903.
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The building to the right, adjacent to the pier, is the site of The Jewel. After serving as a fish processing plant and company store, the building was operated by George A. Cason as a combination grocery store/feed store/general merchandise store.
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The steamer Mistletoe was operated by John Savarese and made the run between Tampa and Sarasota three times a week, which boosted Sarasota’s fishing industry.
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Early photo of the wharf at the foot of lower Main Street as it looked shortly after Harry Higel purchased it in the 1890s.
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The Inn at Main Street and Palm Avenue playing host to Sarasota’s first conventioneers, a group of Baptists.
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Looking from the cupola of the De Soto Hotel toward Five Points in the late 1880s. Note the steeple to the Methodist Church at the upper right.
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Built by John Hamilton Gillespie, the De Soto hotel was once the pride of the small community. Opened in 1887, its construction started a minor boom, which soon petered out. Later the hotel was purchased, renamed the Belle Haven Inn and expanded. It was demolished to make way for a bank during the 1920s.
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Plat of Sowntown Sarasota 1969.
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Plat of Sowntown Sarasota 1913. 72
The plat for Sarasota was filed in 1885 by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company. Many of the streets were named for fruits: Lemon, Lime, Strawberry, Orange, Kumquat, Banana and Mango to underscore the company’s assertion that members of the Scot Colony could easily become gentlemen farmers in what was presented to them as a “Little Scotland.” 73
The Jewel is parcel numbers 2,4 and 6 of block A. 74
“PHOTOS FOR FUN”...
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Emmett Kelly, dressed as the famous clown, Weary Willie.
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One of the greatest sluggers who ever played baseball, Ted Williams, aka “the Splendid Splinter,” was a local favorite when he trained in Sarasota with the Boston Red Sox. Sarasota was the Spring Training home of the Sox from 1933 to 1958, and Williams, who was an avid fisherman, could often be seen downtown at Tucker’s Sporting Goods practicing his casting.
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Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, taking a swing at Sarasota’s Bobby Jones Golf Course.
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Jules Brazil, left, Sarasota master of ceremonies, presents golfing great Bobby Jones with a new Pierce Arrow, Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course, 1927.
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When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus made Sarasota its winter headquarters in 1927, it brought with it many colorful characters and performers. Here, the circus giant shakes hands with a member of the Doll family.
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A lovely Esther Williams, in town to film On An Island With You in 1947, smiles brightly on one of the Lido Casino seahorses. 81
Members of the Miss Florida Pageant in front of the storied Lido Casino.
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Located off of Proctor Road, Sunshine Springs and Gardens, a Sarasota tourist attraction that operated from the mid-50s until 1959, offered a boat tour of its beautiful gardens, lovely “Aquabelles” and water ski shows, featuring a water skiing Santa and Sunshine Sally, billed as the world’s only water skiing elephant. 83
Fishing was one of Sarasota’s earliest tourist attractions, and as this photo illustrates, Sarasota’s gulf and bay teemed with trophy-sized catches, ca. 1932.
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Two Sarasota bathing beauties pose with prize winning tarpon, ca. 1947.
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Texas Jim Mitchell waving from atop one of the alligators of his Texas Jim’s Reptile Farm and Zoo on Fruitville Road, ca. 1945.
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Cornel Wilde, one of the stars of The Greatest Show on Earth, and a fan pose in front of one of the circus trains, 1951.
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Movie star Betty Hutton with script in hand standing next to director Cecil B. De Mille about to shoot a scene for the Academy Award winning, The Greatest Show on Earth, 1951.
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Actor Charlton Heston with riding crop, sitting next to Emmett Kelly, aka Weary Willie, signing autographs on the set of The Greatest Show on Earth, 1951.
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Bob Hope in town to promote a Red Cross charity event, trying to maintain possession of his golf club, 1957.
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Award winning director Cecil B. DeMille shakes hands with Florida Theatre Manager Harry Vincent. DeMille was in town promoting his 1949 film Samson and Delilah.
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John Ringling, the man who gave Sarasota its early claim to being the cultural capital of the Gulf Coast, 1926.
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