In Sarasota, “Money talks, history walks.” I remember when there was a push to save Sarasota High School, long before Dr. Larry Thompson raised the funds to engineer a fantastic makeover of the Collegiate Gothic school which served generations of locals, myself included.
A group of former students devised a bumper sticker that read, “History Cannot Be Bought.” I still have one. On the sticker attached to my car I crossed the “not” part. Indeed, Sarasota history CAN be bought. And has been often, and for quite some time.
But concurrent with the losses, there have been important saves. In Part 1, I mentioned the Sarasota Opera House, opened in 1926 as the Edwards Theatre, the Sarasota Terrace Hotel, built by Charles Ringling and opened the same year, the Orange Blossom Condominiums, built in 1925. All assets to the community also serving as reminders of our storied past.
After the bank failed the building was transformed into the Orange Blossom Hotel, and welcomed guests for many years; today it serves as exclusive Orange Blossom Tower Condominiums. Interestingly the 1920s era Otis elevator is still operational.
One of the threads that runs throughout Sarasota’s history though, is a singular disregard for those places which made this area so unique and desirable.
It does not matter if the site in question is on the Local Register of Historic Places, or the National Register of Historic places.
Nor is it a concern that organizations such as the Historical Society of Sarasota County, the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation, the John Ringling Centre Foundation, the Friends of Friendly Oaks, and STOP form to prevent historic losses. Community outcry has never stopped demolition. The deafness of city leaders underscores the city hall statue by Jack Cartlidge, “Nobody’s Listening.”