THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (25th in a series)

In previous episodes, we revealed little about Harry Higel, one of early Sarasota’s foremost citizens. He was mayor when Sarasota was incorporated as a city in 1913. He constantly fought for progress including being first to plat Siesta Key in 1907. On January 7, 1921, he was found brutally beaten and left to die in the middle of Beach Road. A reward of $1,000 was offered for evidence to convict. Although a suspect was identified, the evidence was circumstantial and the reward was never claimed.

On May 1, 1925, an eight page newspaper size advertisement entitled “Sarasota on the Gulf” was published and widely distributed. It stated, “Fortunes have been made overnight in Sarasota” and included articles to prove it. “Jim Bishop, a fisherman, sold a lot on Longboat Key for $30,000 and retired.” “Senator Park Trammell made a profit of over $10,000 on an initial investment of $750. Widows who had been land poor bought player pianos. Dozens of Similar articles appeared.

During the month of October 1925 real estate sales in Sarasota exceeded 11 million dollars.

Starting in 1923, John Ringling employed three huge dredges to make solid land of mangrove islands creating St. Armand’s, Lido and the southern end of Longboat Key. Sewer and water lines were installed, canals were dredged and roads were built. A causeway that cost $750,000 was built to connect the area with the mainland. The day that the causeway opened, February 7, 1026, Ringling Estates reported real estate sales exceeding one million dollars.

In 1925, Dr. Fred Albee purchased 2,916 acres south of Sarasota from the Palmer Real Estate Sales Group. He employed John Nolan, a respected city planner to design a city to be called Venice, a model city that would attract the elite.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) built the Cooperative National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio to increase pensions for their members. Profits grew by a million dollars per month and they sought property in Florida for an investment.

Based upon the fact that the Seaboard Airline Railway accessed the area, and that it fronted on the Gulf of Mexico, the BLE decided to buy Dr. Albee’s holdings in 1925. They retained John Nolan and planned to build Venice, the ‘Queen of the Gulf’ in a period of three years. Retirees would buy farms complete with a house built and crops planted.

The BLE spent $500,000 per month developing the property. There were sidewalks, gutters, storm sewers, six miles of graded streets, a new train station and an operating water plant. There was a 40 acre demonstration farm, a 160 acre dairy farm, 188 residences, 141 apartment units and 83 stores.

In the summer of 1927 a BLE audit committee discovered that the project had lost $3.4 million by June 30 and projected that if the remaining property were sold at the same price-to-expense ratio, more losses would be incurred. Four top officers of the BLE were removed and it was voted to get out of Venice as quickly as possible.

(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 (24th in a series)

In the last issue of “Settling” it was written that as a result of WWI Sarasota had entered into a period of prosperity; It had not experienced anything like this before. The city purchased and improved the electric plant of the Sarasota Ice and Electric Co. Main Street was lighted at night, appliance stores opened and the citizens bought electrical appliances.

A 279-acre bay front parcel of a land that Bertha Palmer had purchased in 1915 was sold in 1921 for $120,000, resold to a Lakeland group of investors for $279,000, and sold again one month later to a Tampa corporation for $450,000. A 63 acre parcel, about 1/4 of that, was subsequently sold for $365,000. This parcel, Sea Gate, was purchased by Powell Crosley in 1929 for $35,000.

Real Estate offices opened throughout downtown. The A.S. Skinner Co., a real estate sales organization, had a sales force of 66 employees. Schools, churches, banks, restaurants and theaters were being built. In 1925, real estate sales in the city of Sarasota topped 11 million dollars.

The city council decided that what Sarasota lacked was a really first class hotel for “big-city” investors to stay in. The council wooed Andrew McAnsh, a Scotsman who grew up in Chicago where he became involved in politics, prospered in business and built many large apartments. He arrived in Sarasota in 1922 and organized the Mira Mar Corporation for the purpose of developing properties.

The city agreed that if Mr. McAnsh would build a first class hotel, an apartment building and an auditorium it would provide free water and electricity and not levy taxes on the properties for a period of ten years. Of course he accepted!

McAnsh started work on the Mira Mar Apartments on October 6, 1922 and the apartments were ready for occupancy by January 1, 1923. This resulted in McAnsh being called the 60-day wonder. Returning from a business trip to Chicago, his train was met at Rubonia with a brass band parade that escorted him to Sarasota. The Mira Mar Hotel and the Mira Mar Auditorium were started in July 1923 and both were completed within six months.

In November 1925 a new charter extending city limits to include 69 square miles was signed by the Governor. The original township of Sarasota had an area of 2 square miles.

The John Ringling causeway, a wood planked bridge, was built in 1925-26 to provide access to his real estate properties that included St. Armand’s, Bird, Lido and Longboat Keys. On the day that the causeway was formally opened, February 7, 1926, a band from Czecho-Slovakia played two concerts on St. Armand’s Key. Sales of properties at their Ringling estates that day were said to exceed one million dollars.

Some events of significance apart from the real estate boom that occurred during this period are:

• 
  · September 27, 1923 had been declared Public Works Day during which a baseball diamond was prepared at Payne Park for the New York Giants. The Giants began spring training there in 1924.


• · Sarasota Hospital moved from temporary quarters at Third and Goodrich to Hawthorne and the Tamiami Trail.


• · Emma Booker, an African American began teaching blacks in 1918 in rooms rented in the Knights of Pythias Hall.

The children used orange crates for desks and books discarded from white schools. She did not have a degree to teach but spent every summer for 20 years going to school. She finished high school and earned a B.S. degree before she died in 1939.

(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.