Thursday, March 13, 2008

SETTLING SARASOTA (18th in a series)

The previous installment of Settling of Sarasota told of the incorporation of the Town of Sarasota on October 20,1902. John Hamilton Gillespie was elected its first mayor by the will of all 53 voters.

On February 11, 1903, Gillespie, the on-site official of the Florida Mortgage & Investment Co. (FMIC) deeded the Rosemary Cemetery Property to the town. Prior to that date, burials in that cemetery could be made only with the company’s permission. On May 22, 1903, L. H. Cunliff, the first to purchase a burial plot, was charged $15. (In 1910, seven years later, he asserted that he had been bilked, whereupon the town council allowed him to buy the adjacent lot for an additional $5.)

On February 10, 1903, W. W. Lathrop, superintendent of the Peninsular Telephone Co. proposed establishing a telephone exchange in Sarasota. In less than an hour, the councilmen accepted and granted a 30-year franchise to the company. A 50-line switchboard was installed in 1904 and located in the post office building. Carrie Abbe, the Postmistress, was in charge and she hired Mamie Woodruff as the first telephone operator. There were 48 subscribers.
On April 6, 1903, Theodore Redd was awarded a contract to grade Main Street from Five Points to the bay for $35. The town had no money so he accepted scrip (a promise to pay) to be redeemed at a later date.

The women of Sarasota demanded street lighting, sidewalks, and better roads. Hearing the shrill demands of their wives, the councilmen ordered three kerosene street lamps at $3.75 each. One was placed near the watering trough at five Points, one at the foot of Main Street, and the third at the train depot.

The councilmen ordered the property owners to bear the expense of hard surfacing Main Street with marl, but sidewalks was another thing. Sarasota had gotten along fine without them so what’s the hurry.

Starting with only seven women, they chipped in and bought lumber, had it unloaded at the Methodist Church, and started to lay the sidewalks themselves. That did it! The men took over the job and the women stood by, bossed, and snickered.

On September 10, 1903, the council passed the License Fee Ordinance and established the schedule of fees to be paid by every business or profession. Fees ranged from $1.50 to $12.50 per year. Passing an ordinance and enforcing it were two different things, especially since FMIC still owned most of the land and Gillespie was FMIC’s on-site representative.

Starting in the spring of 1903 J. H. Lord, a wealthy Maine native who had visited in Venice since 1891 foresaw Sarasota’s future and started to buy land. He bought lots on Main Street, four of the five corners on Five Points, 200 town lots and 70,000 acres up and down the coast. He paid cash for most of the property and it was a stimulus for Sarasota.

Sarasota was booming!

(To be continued)..

(C) Copyright, 2008 - Leland Desmon. The information on this page may not be reproduced or republished on any other webpage, website, or publication. Please LINK TO US instead.