One of Sarasota’s earliest vacation communities, the Maine Colony, had its start in 1916. David Wade, a real estate investor, purchased land near Phillippi Creek from the Palmer family on behalf of a group of Boston and Maine Railroad retirees. The announcement of plans for the neighborhood made front page headlines in the “Sarasota Times” newspaper.
By the early 1920s, a number of houses had been built in the area around Ashton Street. Many of them were kit homes that came from up north, traveling via train to Tampa and then by boat to the Maine Colony sites.
The houses were one-story, wood-frame with large front porches, big windows, and gabled roofs. The clubhouse, built in 1923, is a prime example and has a corbelled brick chimney at its north gable. The generous sized lawn slopes from the porch to Phillippi Creek, offering delightful, panoramic water views.