Seaboard Air Line Railway Expansion

Southward Expansion Took Railroad to Venice

Photo credits: Sarasota County History Center

The railroad came to Venice at the behest of Bertha Palmer, Palmer, an international socialite, art patron and businesswoman, first visited the Sarasota Bay area in 1910.

Railway Construction - Early 1900s in Sarasota

Seaboard Airline Rail Station - Sarasota

Establishing a winter home on the bay at Osprey, she and her family soon purchased thousands of acres in what was then Manatee County. Some of the land was south of Roberts Bay. In 1911 Palmer prevailed on the Seaboard Air Line Railway to extend its tracks 16.5 miles from Fruitville through Bee Ridge to a point south of Roberts Bay and to name the terminal Venice.

When the Palmers convinced the U.S. Postmaster General to move the existing Venice Post Office one mile south to coincide with the new Venice rail terminal, residents of the early Venice Community north of Roberts Bay, vigorously protested.

Ultimately, their cause failed and they selected a new name, Nokomis. Typically, the Sarasota Times covered the expansion of rail service with great enthusiasm. The Times correspondent from Venice, however, took a different tack. George Higel , who wrote under the name of NEMO, commented in his 1911 Thanksgiving column, "Last Thanksgiving we were wondering and guessing when we would have a railroad and this Thanksgiving we are wondering what we have got a railroad for."

In the same column he commented on the first station: "Its massive pillars of pine saplings and its thatched roof of palmetto...are a constant source of admiration to the arriving passengers."

In his New Year's column he reported that the lumber to build the first station had arrived by regular freight, passenger service was in place and things were looking up.

Various descriptions of the Venice depot include references to a box car, open shed and open platform. After the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers purchased much of the Venice land in 1925, the design for their new city of Venice called for moving the depot a quarter-mile east. They built a new depot consistent with the Mediterranean style adopted for the new city and trains began using it in the spring of 1927.

Woodmere

Once the railroad had been built in Venice, the next step was to extend it farther south. A reason for the extension came in 1918 with the establishment of Woodmere, a company town for the sawmill complex of the Manasota Lumber Company. Located about a mile southeast of the present junction of U.S. 41 and State Road 776, the sawmill was four stories high and employed more than 1,000 workers.

Initially, passenger cars made one round trip from Woodmere to Sarasota on Saturday nights for shopping and recreation. By 1921, there were two trains a day in and out of the thriving community. Although approval was granted in 1926 to connect Englewood to Venice by rail, the tracks were never built. With the closing of the sawmill and the decline of the town, the track between Venice and Woodmere was abandoned in 1930.

advertisement