How it all began...

Sarasota first became a “modern” town in the 1880s when the town was promoted in Scotland by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company in 1885. It was a breath of fresh air, promising an abundance of fertile land, plentiful citrus groves, and affordable housing. Scottish families looking for a new start boarded steamer ships and set sail for Sarasota. Unfortunately, upon their arrival, the town was little more than a frontier camp. Needless to say, most of them left. But among the hardy souls who stayed to complete their dream was John Hamilton Gillespie, a Scottish aristocrat, lawyer, and member of the Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland. It was this man who is believed to have built America’s first golf course, right here in Sarasota. Quite an entrepreneur, Mr. Gillespie also built the upscale DeSoto Hotel on Main Street for tourists and prospective investors. For his efforts, he was later elected as Sarasota’s first mayor in 1902.

A “Paradise for the Pampered” as early as the 1910s, Sarasota began attracting some of America’s most wealthy, who, with their own style, helped to define the county of Sarasota. Today’s Historic Spanish Point was once the posh waterfront winter estate and gardens of Bertha Palmer, widow of Chicago developer Potter Palmer. That’s not all—what is now Myakka River State Park was once Palmer’s 30,000-acre ranch in eastern Sarasota, called Meadowsweet Pastures.

Sarasota - the Circus Town
John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, made his mark on the community with much more flair. Not only did he and his wife Mable build a magnificent Venetian-style mansion on Sarasota Bay, named Cà d’Zan (house of John), but they went a few steps further in positioning Sarasota as “Florida’s Cultural Coast.” John and Mable needed a place to house their ever-growing collection of works by Peter Paul Reubens and other masters of 17th-century Italian and Flemish art. We know that collection today as the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, one of America’s most famous art museums.

Ringling’s influence didn’t stop there. As a developer and dreamer, Ringling used his circus elephants to help build the first bridge from the mainland to St. Armands Key, which he developed as a commercial and residential center. In 1927, the circus’ winter quarters were moved to Sarasota—branding the area as a “ circus town.”

Historical information compiled from: “Sarasota Over My Shoulder,” by Janet Snyder Matthews and the Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources.