The Sarasota Hotel

Sarasota has tried to provide accommodation for visitors and businessmen since its founding and, long before it became popular to build hotels on the keys, downtown was the place to build.

The corner of Main Street and Palm Avenue has been a hotel site of some sorts since the 1890s. Elijah Grantham bought the site, which was a former livery stable, fishouse and pool hall, from Hamlin Whitaker in the 1890s.

After Grantham took over the property, he added a second floor and built nine bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and veranda. He called it The! Inn, and it operated as a hotel and boarding house, accommodating fishermen and traveling public.

The land boom of the mid 1920s brought the need for first class hotels. The Sarasota Hotel, at Main and Palm, was built by W.H. Pipkorn of Milwaukee. It was reported that he was the first man to pay $1,000 a front foot for land in the business section. After paying an estimated $50,000 for the land, he started construction in 1924. By the time of its completion in early 1925, the seven-story hotel was Sarasota's first skyscraper.

According to the 1927-28 Apartment and Hotel Guide, the Sarasota Hotel was "ideally located in the heart of the business district, overlooking Sarasota Bay, one block from band concerts, fishing pier, Caples Park for tennis, children's playgrounds, horseshoes, shuffle board and lawn bowling. Centrally located to all golf courses and bathing beaches. Rates from $2.50 to $6.00 a day with baths. The hotel is a modern, fireproof structure with spacious lounge, lobby and dining room. Situated in the center of the business district, the hotel has been popular with both transient and tourist patrons and as a center of much of the social life of the city."

W.H. Pipkorn died shortly after finishing the hotel, but it was operated by his heirs and representatives until 1934, when it was purchased by the Etowah Hotel Company of Gadsden, Alabama.

The hotel made headlines in 1944 when it was sold to Leroy T. Fenne. It was touted as the biggest real estate transaction since the boom period of the 1920s, selling for more than $100,000.

By the late 1960s, The Sarasota Hotel began to fall into disrepair. Like many of the other downtown hotels, the Sarasota Hotel was falling victim to the migration of tourists staying at the beach-front hotels. The hotel was bought in 1970 by the Landchess Corporation, with the intention of remodeling it into moderately priced apartments. By 1971, however, the city's building department declared the building not in compliance with city building and fire codes. The plans for the apartments folded, and the building was vacated on March 1, 1971. It stood empty until 1974.

It was during 1974 that new life was brought to the building. It was on the verge of being demolished when Carl Shapiro purchased it for $160,000, with plans to do extensive renovations to convert it into executive offices. The hotel became the Main Palm Plaza Building, ending its use as a hotel.

Although it has changed its name over the years, the old Sarasota Hotel building continues to serve the downtown business community.