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I know there are lots of folks who have lived here a long enough time (notice I didn't say "old timers") who remember the old red brick Sarasota High School building on Main Street. It was located on the south side of Main diagonally across the street from the First Baptist Church, and it was set back from the street quite a bit.

The cornerstone of that building now resides at the Sarasota County History Center on Porter Way.  My grand uncle's name, L.L. Hine, is on the corner stone as Sarasota was part of Manatee County when the building was erected in 1912. He was Superintendent of Public Instruction for Manatee County at that time.  The text of the cornerstone reads as follows:

Sarasota High School - Erected 1912

L.L. Hine – Superintendent of Public Instruction

A.F. Wyman – Chairman

Board of Public Instruction Manatee County

F.H. Tucker

E.F. Wilson

A.B. Edwards

Board of Local Trustees

R.I. Kennedy

Sarasota Sub-District #7

John Halton

Willis R. Biggers Architect

I.F. Jones Builder

After the new SHS building was built in 1926 on the South Tamiami Trail, the old building was used as a library until the Chidsey Library was built in 1940. It also had a life as a youth center and a WPA sewing room during WWII.  

In the mid 1940s Mr. Lewis Van Wezel built a row of stores facing on Main Street in front of the school house which he called the Egna Arcade. Pete theorizes that the name Egna derived from the Van Wezels using every other letter in Mrs.Van Wezel's name, EuGeNiA.

Sometime in the mid 1950s the old school building was razed to make way, eventually, for the current Post Office. We were told that the red bricks now form the outdoor patio/cafe at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Life was/is good.