Markers: Sarasota History

Venice Army Air Field opened during WWII, on July 7, 1942. In June of 1943, the first combat aircraft operated from the field. By March 1944 the base was moved to this location. In all, nine groups were trained for combat, with the 337^th being the permanent party.

This photo shows the Atlantic Coast Line passenger depot built in 1925. The architect was ACL's Alpheus M. Griffin. The Mission-style white stucco building, with its red pantiled roof and large shell-shaped semi-elliptical planter, visually anchored the eastern end of Main Street.

Bay Haven School is one of two elementary schools built in Sarasota from identical plans to accommodate population growth resulting from the 1920s real estate boom. Bay Haven and Southside Elementary were designed by architect M. Leo Elliott, a New York-trained practitioner with offices in Sarasota, Tampa, Orlando and St. Petersburg.

Across the pine flatwoods of Florida, turpentine-camp workers were harvesting raw pine tree gum by the early 1900s. Berryman Thomas “B.T.” Longino, Sr. and Luke Grubbs opened the Bee Ridge turpentine camp in 1937 near Clark Road and the Seaboard Air Line Railway track.

The Bee Ridge Woman's Club has been an integral part of the growth and development of the Bee Ridge community, providing social outlet, community pride, and staunch support for many public interest projects since the early 1900s.

In 1882 this "handsome residence" was under construction for Alfred and Mary Bidwell on land Mary purchased from the State of Florida for one dollar an acre. Before construction the Bidwell's apparently occupied the detached kitchen-dining room with a sleeping loft.

Emma E. Booker, a pioneer Black educator was teaching in Sarasota's public school for Negro children in the 1910s. By 1918 she was principal of "Sarasota Grammar School" which held classes in rented halls.

During the heyday of land speculation in the 1920s, a development of slightly less than 100 acres was planned west of (now) Old Englewood Road at N. Indiana Ave. Designed as a mecca for vacationing stars and the wealthy, it was to be called Hygeia. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford reportedly would build here.