It was late fall in 1903 and better things were happening in the Town of Sarasota. The U.S. dredge Suwannee completed a channel from Sarasota Bay to Vince at a cost to the federal government of $50,000. Freight boats began scheduled trips helping the economy.
More families moved into Sarasota and the two-room school on 8th Street became over crowded. Parents appealed to the Manatee County school board to take prompt action. (Sarasota was still in Manatee County.) The estimated cost of the new building was $3,500 and the school board offered $2,000 if Sarasota would come up with the extra $1,500 and provide the lot. The required funds were pledged in less than a week.
The two-story schoolhouse was built on Main street during the summer of 1904 and it opened on September 19th with an enrollment of 114 students. Three teachers were employed initially and a fourth was added after Christmas.
Dr. Jack Halton, Sarasota’s first physician arrived on Thanksgiving Day in 1904. He liked the town so much that he returned to Muncie, Indiana where he had his office, got his family, and was back in Sarasota right after Christmas.
After opening his office he appeared before the town council and declared that the town’s lack of sewers was a disgrace. He said that the stench from the Belle Haven Inn, the town’s deluxe hotel was so nauseating that he had been unable to finish eating a meal in the hotel’s dining room. The item became a newspaper headline and the council ordered the hotel manager to install adequate cesspools or close the place.
J. H. Lord built the town’s first sewer from the Sarasota House out into the Bay. Merchants on the north side of Main Street were allowed to tap into it for a fee.
Mayor Gillespie was a busy man at this time. He had just married Blanche McDaniel, built the town’s first 9-hole golf course on a 110-acre tract of land, and convinced the First National Bank of Manatee to open a branch in Sarasota. A two-story concrete block building was built on the southwest corner of Main and Pineapple; the bank opened in a corner room in October.
The wooden building occupied by the post office and telephone exchange that had been in that spot, was pushed out into Main street and continued operating during construction of the block building.
Gillespie convinced J. Louis Houle to set up a plant on sixth and Lemon to make the cement blocks. Houle drilled an 8-inch artesian well 490 feet deep to provide the water needed. The town purchased the well as a source of municipal water later.
The post office and telephone exchange moved into the block building.
All that activity shows what marriage can do for a guy!
More families moved into Sarasota and the two-room school on 8th Street became over crowded. Parents appealed to the Manatee County school board to take prompt action. (Sarasota was still in Manatee County.) The estimated cost of the new building was $3,500 and the school board offered $2,000 if Sarasota would come up with the extra $1,500 and provide the lot. The required funds were pledged in less than a week.
The two-story schoolhouse was built on Main street during the summer of 1904 and it opened on September 19th with an enrollment of 114 students. Three teachers were employed initially and a fourth was added after Christmas.
Dr. Jack Halton, Sarasota’s first physician arrived on Thanksgiving Day in 1904. He liked the town so much that he returned to Muncie, Indiana where he had his office, got his family, and was back in Sarasota right after Christmas.
After opening his office he appeared before the town council and declared that the town’s lack of sewers was a disgrace. He said that the stench from the Belle Haven Inn, the town’s deluxe hotel was so nauseating that he had been unable to finish eating a meal in the hotel’s dining room. The item became a newspaper headline and the council ordered the hotel manager to install adequate cesspools or close the place.
J. H. Lord built the town’s first sewer from the Sarasota House out into the Bay. Merchants on the north side of Main Street were allowed to tap into it for a fee.
Mayor Gillespie was a busy man at this time. He had just married Blanche McDaniel, built the town’s first 9-hole golf course on a 110-acre tract of land, and convinced the First National Bank of Manatee to open a branch in Sarasota. A two-story concrete block building was built on the southwest corner of Main and Pineapple; the bank opened in a corner room in October.
The wooden building occupied by the post office and telephone exchange that had been in that spot, was pushed out into Main street and continued operating during construction of the block building.
Gillespie convinced J. Louis Houle to set up a plant on sixth and Lemon to make the cement blocks. Houle drilled an 8-inch artesian well 490 feet deep to provide the water needed. The town purchased the well as a source of municipal water later.
The post office and telephone exchange moved into the block building.
All that activity shows what marriage can do for a guy!
"Belle Haven Inn, Sarasota, Fla." Published by the Curt Teich Company in 1914. Photo by T.F. Arnold.
(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.
No comments:
Post a Comment