Sarasota, Florida
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Image:Sarasota Ringling estate.jpg Sarasota is a city located in Florida, USA. It is on the west coast of Florida in the central portion of the state. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 52,715. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 54,349 [1]. It is the county seat for Sarasota County.Template:GR There is an important distinction between the city and what is perceived as Sarasota. The majority of people living in what is understood as Sarasota, live in unincorporated parts of Sarasota County. Some even live in Manatee County because Sarasota was considered to reach Bowlees Creek before Sarasota County was created in 1921 out of a portion of Manatee County. The southern boundary of Bradenton, the closest city to the north, is twelve miles away. So an arbitrary line separated portions of what once was identified as Sarasota and the vestige of that cultural identification remains in postal addresses.
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History
Early history of the area - to Bertha Palmer
Archeological research in Sarasota documents more than ten thousand years of seasonal occupation by native peoples before European explorations began here in the early 1500s. For thousands of years while the current sea level existed, harvesting the bounty of Sarasota Bay was the primary source of protein.
Sarasota Bay, the greatest natural asset of the region, was touted to be as beautiful as the bay of Naples by Bertha Potter Palmer, the largest landholder, rancher, and developer of the area, when she established Sarasota as a fashionable location for winter retreats and tourists shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. At that time, sports fishing was a great draw and it continued to attract visitors until over fishing depleted the amazing fish, such as giant gar and tarpon, living in the bay.
Women have played a significant role in the development of Sarasota, or at least, contrary to many communities, the history of Sarasota has documented their roles very publicly. Bertha Palmer was not so unusual here, the McClellan sisters were the developers of the subdivision, McClellan Park, that bears their name. It is one of the most significant and successful neighborhoods south of downtown. Many other examples may be found by exploring the county records at the Sarasota History Center.
1920s boom time begins with a distinctive county designation
In 1921 several new counties were carved out of portions of Manatee County, which then extended from the natural southern boundary of Tampa Bay to the southern boundary of the state and through a great portion of the interior. One of those new counties distinguished the booming Sarasota Bay area and its keys, that had been identified clearly on maps since the early 1700s—then spelled Zarazote—and extended inland. Sarasota, incorporated as a city in 1913, was designated as the seat of the new county that would bear the same name.
Although the city limits were reduced to facilitate the new boundary, residents of those areas abandoned continued to identify themselves as Sarasotans and, as mentioned in the introduction, so did many residing in unincorporated and previously established postal areas. Other communities in the area were incorporated and began to grow into distinctive towns and cities in the new county. Some communities, such as Overtown, Indian Beach, Bee Ridge, and Fruitville—all but faded from the memory of most, as metropolitan areas grew beyond them.
Sarasota's most notable attraction is the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the state art museum for Florida designed by John H. Phillips and completed in 1929. It is located on the expansive bayside estate where Cà d'Zan, the winter home of Mable and John Ringling designed by Dwight James Baum, was built by Owen Burns in 1925. A portion of Cà d'Zan is shown in the lead photograph for this article. Owen Burns was a large land holder in Sarasota and one of its most significant developers because of his diverse skills, promotion of the community, encouragement of investments through banking, and civic concerns. Much later, a separate museum devoted to the Ringling Brothers Circus also was founded on the estate. All are open to the public for a fee and museum figures indicate that 500,000 people tour the site each year.
The Mable and John Ringling estate was developed upon property that had been part of the Shell Beach subdivision platted by Mary Louise and Charles N. Thompson in 1895. The Thompson home was the first residence on the property. Mable and John spent their winter stays in that house from 1911. Along with being a land developer, Thompson was a manager with another circus, who had interested several members of the Ringling family in Sarasota.
First, the Alf T. Ringling family settled in the Whitfield Estates area with extensive land holdings. The families of Charles and John followed. Ringling Brothers Circus established its winter home in Sarasota during 1919 following the death of Alf T.
Shell Beach jewels on Sarasota Bay
Later, on adjacent parcels of Shell Beach where Ellen and Ralph Caples built their winter retreat, Mable and John Ringling built their compound that would soon include the museum, and Edith and Charles Ringling built a compound that included a home for their daughter, Hester Ringling Landcaster Sandford. The next large Shell Beach parcel, immediately to the north, passed between Ellen Caples, Mable and John Ringling and a few others several times without development until the late 1940s (as the Uplands). The tract abbutting that parcel was replatted in 1925 as Seagate, where Gwendolyn and Powel Crosley built their winter retreat in 1929. All of these historic homes and the museum have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The now-historic neighborhood of Indian Beach—Sapphire Shores grew immediately to the south of the area where these grand homes were built on the bay. Sapphire Shores provided homes to the professionals and retirees who wished to be, or were, closely associated with these wealthiest residents of the community. Indian Beach, which had been a separate community at one time, even contained pioneer homes that persisted among the fashionable new homes built in the boom era of the 1920s.
Charles Ringling as developer
As well as investing in land, property development, and founding a bank, Charles Ringling participated in the civic aspects of Sarasota. He donated the land for the newly formed county to build its government offices and courthouse. Ringling Boulevard is named for Charles. That winding road led east from Tamiami Trail toward the winter circus headquarters and crosses Washington Boulevard where Charles Ringling built the Sarasota Terrace Hotel, a high-rise in the Chicago style of architecture, opposite the site he would donate for the county seat. The hotel and the courthouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Charles Ringling devoted a great deal of time advising others about beginning new businesses in order to help Sarasota advance.
Charles died in 1926, just after the gracious home Edith and he built, was completed. For decades Edith Ringling remained there and continued her role in the circus and her cultural activities in the community, as did Hester and her sons, who were very active in the theatrical and musical venues in Sarasota. What came to be known internationally as the Edith Ringling Estate is now the home of New College of Florida.
John Ringling in partnership with Owen Burns
John Ringling invested heavily in the barrier islands, known as keys, which separate the shallow bay from the Gulf of Mexico. He worked in partnership with Owen Burns to develop the keys through a corporation named, Ringling Isles Estates. To facilitate development of these holdings a bridge was built to the islands and eventually donated to the city for the government to maintain. He named that route, John Ringling Boulevard. Dredge and fill created even more dry land to develop. Winter residents, called snowbirds, flocked to purchase the seasonal homes marketed to the well to do.
Leading edge of the crash
Florida was the first area in the United States affected by the financial problems that eventually lead to the Great Depression. 1926 was the beginning of that collapse of speculation in Florida, much earlier than most parts of the country. John Ringling initially profited from the problems of others. After having put his partner, Owen Burns, into bankruptcy by raiding the treasury of their corporation for use on another project that was failing, he purchased the landmark, El Vernona Hotel, at a fraction of its worth from Burns, who had named it after his wife. Eventually however, John Ringling too, lost most of his fortune. Shortly after the June 1929 death of his wife, Mable, his reversal began. He purchased several other circuses with hopes of combining them with the existing circus and selling shares on the stock exchange, just before the market chrashed. He continued to invest in expensive artwork, but grand projects, such as a hotel on one of the barrier islands, were left unfinished. Plans for an art school as an adjunct to the museum were abandoned, although he lent his name to another art school being established by others in Sarasota. The board of the circus removed John Ringling and placed Samuel Gumpertz in charge of that corporation. By the time of his death in 1936, John Ringling also was close to bankruptcy. His estate was saved only because he had willed it and his art collection to the state and, that his nephew, John Ringling North, struggled for years to keep that legacy in tact.
Cultural Center of Florida
Recognized as the cultural center of the state of Florida since the early 1920s, artists of many disciplines, writers, performers, musicians, and architects have been attracted to the community in great numbers. Sarasota is the home of Florida West Coast Symphony and its famous Sarasota Music Festival which draws students, musicians, professors, and lovers of chamber music from around the world for a three-week event of international importance; Sarasota Ballet; Sarasota Opera; and numerous other musical, dance, artistic, and theatrical venues.
The community also is renowned as the home of the Sarasota School of Architecture which developed as an adaptation to its sub-tropical climate, using newly emerging materials manufactured or implemented following World War Two.
Sarasota is home to Mote Marine Laboratory, a premier marine rescue, research, and aquarium; Marie Selby Botanical Gardens with its renowned orchid collection; G-Wiz Museum, a science museum of hands on-appeal to children of all ages; Sarasota Jungle Gardens, which carries on early tourist attraction traditions; as well as many historic sites and neighborhoods.
Colleges in Sarasota include New College of Florida, a highly acclaimed public liberal arts college which serves as the honors college for the state; Ringling School of Art and Design, a school of art, music, and design; and a satellite campus of both University of South Florida and Eckerd College. Several two-year colleges include Sarasota County Technical Institute and Keiser College of Sarasota.
Transportation and Broadcasting
Image:Aerial back-SRQ.jpg The city is home to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (also known by its IATA designation, SRQ) which serves both Manatee and Sarasota counties. That designation was adopted by SRQ Magazine, an informative local magazine.
The local television affiliates are WWSB, which airs ABC programming, along with a continuous local cable news operation run by Comcast, and Sarasota Herald-Tribune branded as SNN 6.
Contemporary Sports
Golf was introduced into the United States in Sarasota, which became a mecca for enthusiasts of the game. Bobby Jones laid out the city course which is named after him and the SaraBay course in the Whitfield area. Many courses dot the area, including the one originally laid out for the hotel John Ringling planned on the southern tip of Longboat Key.
Sarasota also is home to Ed Smith Stadium, where the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati's major league baseball MLB team, trains in spring for the upcoming season, and is home to the minor league, Sarasota Reds.
News Items
On September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was in Sarasota when the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists. He was at Emma E. Booker Elementary School at the time. Sarasota was the location of the Carlie Brucia kidnapping in 2004 and the murder of Nancy Campbell-Panitz in 2000. In 1991, actor Paul Reubens was arrested for lewd conduct in an adult movie theater by county sheriffs, which ultimately led to the demise of his then-popular persona "Pee-Wee Herman". In 1974, WXLT anchor Christine Chubbuck committed suicide during a live television broadcast. Sarasota's first postmaster was murdered brutally on Siesta Key, in a case that was never solved.
Geography
Image:FLMap-doton-Sarasota.PNG Sarasota is located at 27°20'14" North, 82°32'7" West (27.337273, -82.535318)Template:GR.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 67.2 km² (25.9 mi²). 38.6 km² (14.9 mi²) of it is land and 28.6 km² (11.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 42.58% water.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 52,715 people, 23,427 households, and 12,064 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,366.9/km² (3,539.8/mi²). There were 26,898 housing units at an average density of 697.5/km² (1,806.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 76.91% White, 16.02% African American, 0.35% Native American, 1.02% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.74% from other races, and 1.91% from two or more races. 11.92% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 23,427 households out of which 19.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.3% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.5% were non-families. 38.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.81.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.4% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 22.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $34,077, and the median income for a family was $40,398. Males had a median income of $26,604 versus $23,510 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,197. 16.7% of the population and 12.4% of families were below the poverty line. 28.5% of those under the age of 18 and 7.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Meanest City Award
Sarasota imposed a no-camping ban, which lead the Washington, D.C.–based National Coalition for the Homeless to name it the meanest city in the nation toward the homeless.
Sister Cities
- Dunfermline, Scotland
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Perpignan, France
- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Tel Mond, Israel
- Vladimir, Russia
External links
Template:Sarasota County, Floridade:Sarasota fr:Sarasota io:Sarasota, Florida pl:Sarasota pt:Sarasota