This Week Newsletter - September 30, 2009
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This Week
With a hint of autumn in the air (or is it just our imagination?), it is time to recall this past summer's fun, good old Sarasota-style. Yep! It's time for a dose of "I'm Havin' Fun in Sarasota"...that classic tune produced by Tony Swain's dad, Hack Swain. For our new viewers, you're in for a special treat, and for people who have already seen the video; once again put a smile on your face and an unforgettable tune in your head. Click here to step back to the fabulous 50s! (photo credit: Sarasota County History Center)
The Very Thing to Send (Electronically)
Oh, how perfectly convenient! Vintage e-Postcards of Sarasota to send to friends and family with a quick thought from you. Nobody has much free time to write and stamp a card these days, so check out our postcard service. It's fun and as 'easy as pie'. Click here to view the postcards, and try out this 'good time' feature.
Tales of Sarasota
We bet Lilly Tomlin will be calling Pete after she reads his blog this week. After all, she is the poster-girl for the switchboard operator! Pete also challenges us to 'remember' an assortment of things that many have never even heard of, much less recall in their daily lives. If you see a a car with a leather bag hanging off the front bumper, you'll now know why. Click here to read his blog.
The Main Street Reporter
August 10, 1956 (SH-T) Great Discoveries Department...Take the ringing of the telephone, for one thing. Ever stop to think that you purty well can tell what you have called a friend or foe away from ...by how long it takes for him/her to answer? Most folks have a phone near the table where they eat their three-a-day. So, if the ring has no sooner sounded than it's picked up...why it takes no Sherlock Holmes to tell you that the steak/hamburger is going to get cold if you don't make it snappy. If on the other hand, the bell sounds as many as four whangs...your party is likely going to appear at the other end...dripping and clutching a bath towel about his torso. Or the bell has had to sound long and hard, in order to route your friend or foes from deep slumber. And find groping his way to the phone he has threatened to have extended to his bedside. From the voice you can likely tell. Is the "Hello" a moist sounding one? Or just sleepy or bleary-eyed, like the I in hang-over? Listen for Mystery Tones...You can not tell by asking him/her. For nine times out of six your party will answer your "Were you asleep" with a yawning lie, "No, I was just brewing myself a cup of coffee." Or if asked was he/she called away from his bath...gets a chilly sounding, "Oh no, I was just watering my geraniums." But listen carefully to how many rings you hear rung. Also to the inflection of the voice answering. Breathless? He/she has dashed into the house from parking the car, hoping to GET THERE before the last dying exasperating gasp. And being left to wonder who, and what the dickens! If the voice is weak or full of pain or maybe a lion's roar, he/she has (a) Stubbed his/her toe on Grandma's old rocker, or horror, Johnny's spaceship, (b) Slipped on a scatter rug and wrenched some part of him/her. And if it's a man's voice when you expect a woman's, or vice-versa...you can always hang up. No matter how many rings were rung to bring him/her is Mr. Bell's invention. (photo credit: Sarasota County History Center)
Ain't Life Grand?
Your editor spends a great deal of time at the Sarasota County History Center finding interesting information for you to ponder. While there, he also comes across many photos that depict life at an earlier time in history. With that in mind, we are now going to show you some of those photos that all of us can relate to in one way or another. Enjoy! By definition the Gang of Eight refers to four members (chair and ranking minority member) of the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence and the four leaders of the House and Senate. Your editor found this interesting photo of a Sarasota 'gang of eight'. Oh my, Jon Stewart, or Bill Maher, would have a ball with this material. Does anyone know who these folks are? If so, I would love to thank them for their imagination. (photo credit: Sarasota County History Center)
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The Memorial Oaks of Main Street
(Story from Gulf Coast Chronicles - Remembering Sarasota's Past, courtesy of the author Jeff LaHurd. All his fascinating books recalling our local history are available at local bookstores, various nonprofit organizations, and at Amazon.com.) Not too long ago, a stroll along Main Street from Orange Avenue east to the Atlantic Coastline Railway Station was like a journey through a Norman Rockwell painting. There were homes with porches, nicely kept lawns and people to greet you as you walked by. A buffering strip of grass divided the sidewalk from the street and in the evening, old-fashioned domed street lamps cast a comforting glow. But most pleasing of all were the majestic shade trees that lined the street.They were our Memorial Oaks - 181 of them, a tree for each Sarasotan who had marched off to fight in World War I. By the end of 1954, they had grown to full and lush maturity. Therein lay the problem. Sarasota was starting its push to progress, and the trees...well, they were standing, however proudly, in the way. Ken Thompson, the City Manager, told a reporter, "The presence of trees along Main Street has undoubtedly curtailed development of the city's main street as a business street." A city commissioner put it more bluntly: "It's either the oaks or progress." The city's leaders wanted progress. A group of citizens disagreed and quickly formed the Friends of Friendly Oaks. Some remembered the balmy July day in 1922 when the trees, then mere seedlings were dedicated and that stretch of Main Street was renamed Victory Avenue. They reminded people how Woman's Club president Mrs. Frederick H. Guenther had spoken at the dedication, promising Sarasota's soldiers that their memorial was "an avenue of living trees, whose beauty and grateful shade would delight and bless generations long after you had passed on." Soon the newspapers were full of the controversy. Read more... (Photo credit: Sarasota County History Center, Pete Esthus Collection)
Yesterday's Sarasota CalendarEvery day of the year we highlight what took place in Sarasota's history, thanks to Whit Rylee and Tom Payne's extensive research and sense of humor. Frequently check our website's homepage to find out what occured today. Also, be sure and check out Whit's website at: www.ChickenHillNC.com.
A second jump carried it twenty feet closer to the hotel where a guest, Mr. Campbell, finally corralled it. Mr. Faubel, manager of the hotel, was quick to point out the fine fishing on the lawn. (photo credit: Sarasota County History Center)
History LocatorToday we are honoring the Bee Ridge Woman's Club historical marker. It reads:  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. Organized by a group of women in 1915 as the Get-Together-Club, the group met and held social events in the Bee Ridge Hotel, owned by Mrs. Potter Palmer whose Sarasota-Venice Company was engaged in extensive farm, citrus grove, and residential development of the Sarasota County area. Beginning with eleven charter members, the group became a full-fledged women's club in 1917 with the adoption of a constitution and bylaws and was renamed the Bee Ridge Woman's Club. In 1919, the club joined the General Federation of Women's Clubs, a national organization. In April 1920, on a motion by Ethel MacKintosh, a committee was formed to locatea a suitable lot for building a clubhouse. John MacKintosh, Ethel's husband and the architect who designed the Bee Ridge Presbyterian Church, drew plans for a clubhouse on which contractor Thomas H. Crisp began construction in June 1922. Read reverse side...
Where Was I?
The winner from our last quiz was Dale Harris. We would like to thank our generous sponsors for providing prizes. You too, can become a sponsor (see below). Click here to review the photo, question and the correct answer of last week's challenge. This Week's Clues:
Do tell my name, and please spell it correctly! So many people refer to me by another name that has nothing to do with me. That person, so it is rumored, ended up under water. Please submit the form that allows you to guess the answer. Click here to fill it out, and next week we will announce the winner, and give the solution to the question. Answer early, since the first person with the correct answer, claims the prize. Contestants may win only once per month. (photo credit: Sarasota County History Center) Sponsored By: This week Sarasota Architectural Salvage is our sponsor. The winner of the contest will receive a $20 gift certificate to be redeemed at the store.
As a BONUS, Jesse White, the owner, is also offering a great discount coupon to all of our viewers. Just click here to see what's in store for you! Simply print out the coupon, and take it shopping in a one-of-a-kind cool place. If you would like to be a sponsor of our "Where Am I?" quiz, please call us at (941) 951-7727. It only cost $25 per week for us to set up your ad, and then you only have to provide a prize for the winner. What could be easier?
Buchan-Dearborn Aviation DayThird Annual Fly-in BreakfastJoin in the fun at the Buchan Airport, on October 10, 2009, where you can get a scruptious custom-made omelet breakfast ($6.00), from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Vintage planes will be flying in from all around to participate in this popular event. Come meet an greet the visiting aviators. There will be a complimentary shuttle to the Olde Englewood Village so you can explore shops and galleries on Dearborn Street. Learn Englewood's history and much more! Olde Englewood Village will come alive from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. that evening, for you to stroll and enjoy their own "Saturday Nite Live" experience. Anyone wishing to support this event may do so by contacting Vito Bisceglia at Royal Bank of Canada, 548-2080. For additional information, call Russ Kyper, 474-7632, or email him at, russkyper@yahoo.com.
Woodrow and Delma Lanius House and Garage The Lanius House, located at 104 East Nippino Trail in Nokomis was constructed c. 1925 and purchased by Woodrow and Delma Lanius in 1949. It was a simple wood frame structure with Mediterranean Revival Style influences similar to other structures in the Nokomis area. Over time, Delma developed a plan to convert this simple home into a two-story structure similar to those in the community in which she was raised in Salem, Massachusetts. The construction of the house was accomplished by her husband, Woodrow, between 1964 and 1974.
Delma Lanius was a legal secretary who was raised in a family of antique dealers. From 1955 to 2007, while operating her antique store in Nokomis, she developed her design sensibility. Woodrow (Woody) Lanius was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Sarasota shortly after World War II. Over the course of his life he has had many occupations including licensed sea captain, airplane pilot, diamond miner, train conductor, demolition expert, licensed marine and building contractor, landscaper, house painter, master carpenter, fine artist, brick layer (the property contains 300,000) fishing guide and iron smith. At the direction of his wife Delma, Woody constructed the subject structure using salvaged windows, doors and metal grill work that had been collected from the region. In many instances these were deconstructed and the aged materials reconstructed into the desired window or door configuration. The cypress clapboard siding was new at the time of its installation. Read more... |
We would like to extend our thanks to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for permitting Sarasota History Alive! to reprint excerpts of Helen Griffith's Main Street Reporter column from the 1940s and beyond. Please visit them online at, 
Today in 1913, if you wanted your fishing easy, you should be at the Bay Island Hotel. On the first day of the Kingfish season, a four-foot, twenty-seven pound beauty, complete with a mullet in its mouth, jumped ten feet fromt he bay, across the seawall, and onto the lawn. 
Ahh...what a view! I was near the water, and was a very popular spot. People would drive their cars under me, and steal a kiss when you blew your car horn. Everyone came to do business in my structure at one time or another. Afterall, I housed City Hall. 
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