THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (33rd in a series)

Sarasota in the sixties

· New College, a liberal arts college, was established on the grounds of the former Charles Ringling Estate.
· Hurricane Donna hit Sarasota with 120 mph winds, pulled the water out of the bays and inlets, forced the evacuation of the Keys, and closed all of the schools.
· Chicago White Sox began spring training at Payne Park.
· Bay Haven School became the first public school in the county to have an integrated program enrolling 39 black students.
· A $1.35 million bond issue was approved by the voters for a city-owned performing arts building, the Van Wezel. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s successor firm and was built using these funds.
· The Sailor Circus, a Sarasota High School program, established a permanent venue on Bahia Visa Street.
· Construction of a new airline terminal building had been completed and occupied by Eastern Airlines. The FAA accepted the control tower operation, and Douglas DC-7’s began regular flights to the Sarasota Bradenton Municipal airport.

In February 1965, the jet age was officially introduced to the area when National Airlines began using 103 passenger Boeing 727’s for flights between Sarasota and New York City


(To be continued)...

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (32nd in a series)

Sarasota in the nifty fifties was a busy place.

• Cecil B. DeMille filmed “The Greatest Show on Earth.
• The Asolo Theater was brought from Italy and installed in the Ringling Museum of Art.
• US Route 41 was rerouted to follow the downtown bay front, adding a new island park and marina.
• Riverview High School and Brookside Middle School were built.
• The Herald Tribune returned to being a morning newspaper and moved into its new building on US 41.
• The Asolo Theater opened with a presentation of the New York City Center Opera Company.
• The Ringling Shopping Center, Sarasota’s first, opened in 1955 and Publix was the key occupant.
• Sarasota was the first city in Florida to have a Golden Arches (McDonald’s) restaurant.
• The first Miss Florida Pageant was held in Sarasota in 1956.
• The Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus gave its last performance under the big top in Pittsburgh on July 16, 1956. It required 90 railroad cars to move the circus around the country.
• A red tide outbreak of catastrophic proportion in 1957 killed thousands of marine animals in the Gulf between Clearwater and Naples. Prisoners were used to clean up the dead fish.
• A hard freeze (20 degrees F.) hit Sarasota on the 12th and 13th of December 1957 and did millions of dollars of damage to vegetable crops and livestock.
• The Arvida Corporation, founded by Arthur Vining Davis purchased the southern half of Longboat Key, all of Bird Key, and most of Lido Key from the Ringling Estate for 13.5 million dollars.
• The Sailor Circus, a part of the Sarasota High School gymnastics program, erected tents on the high school football field and performed aerial acts in the open. A 30 minute short subject was filmed by Warner Brothers and shown in theaters world-wide.
• Negro golfers played the Bobbie Jones Golf Course for the first time.

Sarasota was a city with small town ambiance.

(To Be Continued)..

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (31st in a series)

Did you know that there was a naval attack transport, the U.S.S. Sarasota, that was built in California in 1944? It served in the southwest Pacific during WWII. The U.S.S. Sarasota transported troops, defended itself against air attacks, came to the aid of wounded ships, and took part in assaults and landings on Okinawa and the Philippines.

President Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945, and Vice President Harry Truman became President. Germany surrendered to the Allied Command on May 7, 1945, and Sarasota celebrated. Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 15, 1945, after atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During the winter of 1945-46, 40,000 winter visitors came to Sarasota, more than ever before. The housing shortage became acute because many of the servicemen were still here despite the ending of hostilities. The boom had begun.

The Trail Drive-in Theater, one of the first in Florida, opened in 1949 across from the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport. It held 780 cars; the projector was 245 feet from the 65’x47’ screen. It was family entertainment. First run movies were shown and the snack bar served chicken and shrimp dinners.

In 1949-1950, 500 houses, five churches, thirty-five stores, ten apartment houses, seven motels, two fire stations and a new radio station were built. Paver Park Homes were advertised for $2,500 down, $50/month.

Sarasota started its effort to become a center for the arts when the Circus Museum opened and the West Coast Symphony was established in 1949. There was an arcade on the pier at the end of Main Street with a pool full of tropical fish. You could buy fresh caught kingfish from Captain Anderson at $1 a pop when he docked to bring a group of deep-sea fisherman back on land.

The two blocks at the end of Main Street were known as “down town” and had several restaurants and lounges with entertainment. Famous artists and writers lived in Sarasota. St. Armand’s Key was alive with elite stores. You could swim, play volley ball on the beach and dance to the music of Rudy Bundy at the Lido Casino, often featuring Lenny Dee.

There were circus shows at the Ringling Hotel on U. S. 41, and Hollywood was here filming “The Greatest Show on Earth.” In fact, there were 15 circus companies with headquarters in Sarasota and more circus people were living here than in any other place in the world.

A group of architects who later became famous came to Sarasota in the early 1950’s led by Ralph Twitchell and including Paul Rudolph, Victor Lundy, Tim Siebert, Jack West and the developer, Philip Hiss.

John D. MacDonald, author and environmentalist, moved to Siesta Key in 1950. He wrote 75 novels, a number of which were the very popular ”Travis McGee” mystery series.

Sarasota was a bustling slice of Paradise in 1951.

(To Be Continued)..

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (30th in a series)

The year was 1938, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been reelected President of the United States and Sarasota was the beneficiary of WPA projects for much of its employment.

Potter and Honore Palmer donated 2,000 acres of Bertha Palmers ‘Meadow Sweet Pastures’ ranch for a state park, a gift which became the core of the Myakka State Park. Hundreds of persons were employed constructing roads, building cabins and more. Improvements to the Osprey Avenue bridge, the construction of city sidewalks, and the development of Luke Wood Park were all WPA projects.

Construction of the Lido Beach casino as a WPA project was approved by the government on June 13, 1938 with the proviso that the city contribute $40,000 in cash and donate the land. Thirteen hundred feet of beach frontage was obtained from the Ringling Estate in a tax debt settlement; a $40,000 bond issue was floated and sold out within days. The casino formally opened on December 27, 1940. Nobody knows the total cost of the facility, but it was referred to as “The Quarter Million Dollar Casino.” Thousands of servicemen from the Sarasota and Venice air bases visited it often.

The Sarasota-Manatee airport was another WPA project that benefitted Sarasota significantly. In July 1940 the War Department approved the airport as a part of the National Defense Plan and additional grants came rapidly during 1940.

In March 1942, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses belonging to the 97th Bomb Group arrived for six weeks of final training. There were no barracks, tents were erected for sleeping and eating. Kerosene lanterns were used for much of the illumination. The 97th Bomb Group log read, “Three days of steady rain necessitated the use of palmettos for the construction of corduroy roads to permit entry to dispersal points.”

At the peak of the field’s operation, more than 3,000 men were stationed here. Captain Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay that delivered the first atomic bomb to Hiroshima was one of the first flight instructors at the airport.

On December 7, 1941, a total of 353 Japanese bombers, launched from six aircraft carriers, attacked the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sinking 10 warships, destroying 188 aircraft and killing 2400 personnel. President Roosevelt called it, “A date which will live in infamy,” and the United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941.

This surprise attack changed the U.S. public opinion from isolationist to participant. Before the war ended, 6300 Sarasota County men and women had registered for the draft. The population of Sarasota County in 1940 was only 16,106.

(To Be Continued)..

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (29th in a series)

The nation was in the depths of a depression on March 4, 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States of America.

Sarasota was fortunate that the Boston Red Sox chose it as their spring training site. Tourists escaping from the northern winter cold came to see them play.

Fred Albee opened his Florida Medical Center in the former Park View Hotel in Venice. His patients ate nutritious food from his farms and groves and ice cream from his dairy.

March 9th, Congress passed the Federal Emergency Relief Act which expired in two years to be replaced by the Works Project Act (WPA). In 1935 it provided jobs for ¾ of the nation’s “heads of the household”. Sarasota received $131,465 from the WPA to work on ten area projects. This sum provided employment for 294 men in the city, 114 men in the county, and a total of 87 women throughout the area. In addition, work crews of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) were kept busy for six years at Myakka State Park.

Booker High School, Sarasota’s first high school that admitted Negroes, graduated its first class of four in 1935.

John Ringling (right), the last of the five Ringling brothers, died on December 2, 1936. He was 60 years old. In his will he bequeathed his home, Ca' d Zan, and the Ringling Museum of Arts to the State of Florida. At his death, John was so deeply in debt that it took ten years to settle the estate.

In 1937, the city bought the property now called Bayfront Park from the defunct Sarasota Bay Hotel Co. by purchasing tax certificates valued at $15,000. The WPA put $131,000 into the project which made possible the construction of Bayfront Park and the Municipal Auditorium. The Auditorium opened on February 24, 1938 for the Sara de Soto Celebration. Three thousand people attended.

Today’s Sarasota/Manatee International Airport started as a small landing strip named Lowes Field. It was the destination for swim meets, gymnastics, music, shopping and dining before it went out of existence in 1969. It was Sarasota’s first municipal airport. On July 15, 1937, National Airlines was authorized to provide passenger and mail service from Lowes field. One daily northbound flight to Tampa and St. Petersburg, and one daily southbound flight to Ft. Myers and Miami were scheduled.

Sarasota was one of only 275 cities in the nation with airmail service. The aircraft was a single engine Stinson; the runways were grass. Unfortunately, however, the city was informed that National would soon cease operations until the runways were improved. Summer rains often made takeoffs and landings impossible.

The airport became a WPA project and work began on September 1938 with 15 men. By the end of November, 317 men were working on the improvements. Unskilled labor was paid 31 cents/hour, semi-skilled 37 cents/hour, and skilled labor 48 cents/hour. The airport grew to 640 acres and 300 of the workers lived in the Sarasota/Manatee area, futher aiding the local economy.

The city of Sarasota had 16,106 residents.

(To Be Continued)..

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (28th in a series)

The year 1929 saw Sarasota in a deep depression. The population of the county was 12,200. Telephone subscribers dropped from 2662 to 1689. Pure pork sausage sold for 10 cents a pound, sirloin steak for 15 cents per pound.

The Ringling Causeway was in such a state of disrepair that it was closed until the city found sufficient funds to pay the labor cost for 50 men who worked on it for a month. The materials were donated.

Powell Crosley Jr. bought a 63-acre bay front property in Sarasota for $35,000 at auction. It had sold for $365,000 to a developer in 1925. He built an 11,000 square foot estate residence with 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and called it Seagate.

Mr. Crosley owned an Automotive Accessories Company, a mail order auto parts company whose sales consisted mostly of thousands of five American flags in a holder that attached to the radiator cap. He also started the Crosley Radio Company in 1920 when his son wanted a radio, a new gadget that cost $130. Crosley bought a book on radios, learned how to make a crystal set and sold thousands at $9.00 each. They were called Harkos, and Crosley was called the Henry Ford of radio. In 1923 he built the 28th radio station in the U.S. with call letters WLW. It had a 500,000 watt transmitter and it was said that it could be heard anywhere on earth.

Crosley marketed the Shelvador electric refrigerator in 1932, the first with shelves in the door. The inscription on front of it read: Crosley/Shelvador/made in USA.

The Cincinnati Reds baseball team was struggling to survive in 1934. Powell Crosley bought the team, installed lights on the playing field, and the Reds played seven games “under the lights.” Attendance was ten times that for a normal day game.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32ND President of the United States in March 1933 and instituted a special session of Congress to pass a make-work program called the “New Deal”. On Saturday, December 2, 1933, the Conservation Corps (CCC) one of 21 New Deal programs, distributed 641 checks in Sarasota totaling $4,775, an average of just over $7.00 per worker.

(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.

THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (27th in a series)

In mid-June, 1927, the Sarasota City Council passed an ordinance “prohibiting the showing of moving pictures, plays, vaudeville-acts or other amusements on Sundays”: I suppose that ordinance affected visits to the circus winter quarters, Sarasota’s number one tourist attraction. I wonder whose job it was to police this illegality and how much he was paid to do it.

Also in 1927, John Ringling hired John H. Phillips to design the Ringling Museum of Art to house his vast collection of paintings collected during tours of Europe. (Phillips was the architect who designed the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art). Thousand year old marble columns were imported from Greece and wall foundations from Italy to be used in its construction.

In March, the Sarasota-Palmbee Highway, the first cross-state highway south of Tampa, was opened to traffic. It passed through the towns of Arcadia and Okeechobee on its way to the east coast. It is presently known as State Route 70.

The city fathers purchased a 290 acre tract of land from the trustees of the Palmer estate and hired Donald J. Ross to design an 18-hole golf course. In February, 1928 the golf course was opened to the public. In an exhibition game, a foursome composed of Bobby Jones and Louis Landcaster defeated Watts Gun and Jim Senter. Jones shot a 73 and was given a new Pierce Arrow automobile. Fifteen hundred golfers were in attendance. Although the course was named after Jones to “give it prestige”, some thought it should have been named after Sir John Hamilton Gillespie, Sarasota’s first golfer. Gillespie died of a heart attack while walking on a course of his own design four years earlier.

Sarasota's Property values dropped to “normal” levels in 1928. The future looked OK, and Sarasota’s first radio station, owned by the Chamber of Commerce with call letters WJBB, went on the air. It sent citrus baskets to the furthest listener of the day. Hawaii and Saskatchewan listeners were recipients. The Nye Odorless Crematory Co. of Macon, Georgia built and put into operation an incinerator to consume Sarasota’s garbage and trash. Whew!

The stock market crashed in October 1929.

Building permits that had totaled $4.5 million in 1925 dropped to $83,596 in 1929. The depression had begun; the number of winter visitors dropped to a very few; citrus rotted on the trees, and mullet brought less than one cent per pound.

John Ringling’s Sarasota bank closed; he ran out of money and credit; Mabel Ringling died at the age of 54. John was a broken man.

(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.