[sugarmamma]

It wasn’t until the 1880s that development really began. The “modern town” of Sarasota was promoted in Scotland by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company in 1885. With the promises of fertile vegetable fields, town housing and profitable citrus groves, Scottish families boarded a steamer and set sail for Sarasota. Upon their December arrival the colonists were shocked by what they found – an empty, stump-filled Main Street reached only by wading ashore. Many colonists left, but some stayed on as the town’s plan took shape. John Hamilton Gillespie a Scottish aristocrat, lawyer and member of the Royal Company of Archers, Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland, built what is believed to be America’s first golf course in Sarasota, a nine-hole course near today’s Links and Golf avenues. Gillespie also built the upscale DeSoto Hotel on Main Street for tourists and prospective investors. In 1902 he was elected as Sarasota’s first mayor. Scottish influence remains, through the many various golf courses and the Riverview High Kiltie band, which dons authentic kilts and features bagpipers and Highland dancers.

The Crowley Museum and Nature Center in Eastern Sarasota vividly demonstrates what life was like for Sarasota’s first settlers in the late 19th Century. Visitors to Crowley can follow a portion of the Pine Level Trail, a pioneer road that once lead from the County Seat to nearby Braidentown, see the recently renovated 1889 William H. Tatum home, or visit the Crowley family’s cabin, replete with period furniture and utensils. A blacksmith shop displays original tools used in shoeing horses, repairing wagon wheels and other difficult metal working tasks.

Sarasota began a trend of attracting wealthy Americans in the 1910s that continues today. Bertha Palmer, widow of Chicago developer Potter Palmer, came to Sarasota and built extensive gardens on her waterfront winter estate, Osprey Point, which is today’s Historic Spanish Point.