Markers: Sarasota History

The mansion and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, surrounded by lovely gardens and embellished with Italian statuary were bequeathed to the State of Florida by the circus magnate in 1936.

The fragile lands surrounding this pass were settled thousands of years ago by prehistoric Indians. Over time, storms and currents changed the land, and the original Floridians' villages were lost. The 1851 U.S. Coast and Geodetic chart labeled Casey's Pass.

Charles Ringling, along with his wife Edith and their children, helped Sarasota become a dynamic, thriving West Coast community. Born in 1864, he was actively involved in the operation of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Among the number of circuses that have called Sarasota County home, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus [RBBB] is the largest and the one that has had the longest association with Venice.

A unique community founded in the 1800s by the Ainger, Anderson, Biorseth, Carver, Chadwick, Chapman, Clark, Dryman, Heacock, Goff, Gottried, Green, Johnson, Jones, Kelly, Lampp, Leach, Loper, Nichols, Quimby, Washburn, Walker, Whidden and Wyatt families...

In 1925, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), a labor union based in Cleveland, Ohio, purchased land to create the city of Venice. The BLE hired city planner John Nolen to complete the city design which he had already begun for the land's previous owner, Dr. Fred Albee.

The Edwards Theatre was the dream of Sarasota County's native son and the City's first Mayor, Arthur B. Edwards, who dedicated himself to the proposition that a modern city be built on the shores of Sarasota Bay.

The first Black settler here was Lewis Colson who, in 1884, assisted in surveying the Town of Sarasota. By 1886, several Black families were living here. In 1899 Lewis and Irene Colson organized the Bethlehem Baptist Church. Later, F.H. Haynes, C.H. Murphy...