With Mrs. Potter Palmer’s purchase of 80,000 acres of property in and around Sarasota, Sarasota became the focus for winter visitors and persons of wealth. The town population was 840 and increasing rapidly.
The Sarasota-Venice Co. was set up by the Palmers to develop and sell property. The Bee Ridge area was touted as excellent for farming vegetables and was the first sold in 1911. Mrs. Palmer established Meadow Sweet Pastures, a model cattle breeding ranch in the Myakka Lake region. She bought prize bulls and started a program of cattle dipping to eliminate ticks and the diseases they caused. Prior to that, ranchers thought that “dipping” would kill the cows.
A 30-year franchise to produce electricity had been granted in 1909, but no street lights had been placed until two puny ones, one at Five Points and the other at the intersection of Main Street and Palm Avenue were installed in 1911. Lights were turned on from dusk to midnight every night except on moonlit nights. There was no power available during the day until the company finally agreed to provide ‘breakfast light,’ from 4:00 until 6:00 a.m. – that’s all! Of course, service improved later.
On Saturday night November 12, 1910, movies were shown in a tent set up at the foot of Main Street. It was an event heralded for weeks before the show. The tent was packed and people waited outside for the next performance. A gramophone provided sound.
The year 1911 was a period of great activity. The Citizens Bank of Sarasota was organized and opened for business. Mr. and Mrs. Honore, Mrs. Palmer’s uncle and aunt, built a large home, the Acacias on Yellow Bluffs. The Sarasota Yacht Club was revived.
A $20,000 bond issue for building a water works and a sewage system was approved, 57 votes for to 35 against.
A contract was let to drill an artesian well and lay water and sewer lines. The sewer discharge line was extended 400 feet into the bay. Conditions were improving.
Unfortunately, however, cows, pigs, and goats roamed wherever they pleased. They drank from the fountain at Five Points, wallowed in mud puddles and slept under houses. Cowpokes came into town on Saturday night, got ‘likkered-up,’ raced their ponies on Main Street and shot at unwary dogs.
Fortunately, Hamden S. Smith was elected mayor and provided the impetus for passage of Ordinance #51 that penalized the owners of animals grazing within town limits. The cattlemen threatened but the ordinance passed and the cattlemen’s domination was over.
Sarasota was growing.
(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.
