Historic Spanish Point
Time Honored
HISTORIC SPANISH POINT PRESERVES BOTH NATURE AND THE PAST.
You don't have to be a history buff to appreciate Historic Spanish Point, one of the prettiest and most interesting spots in Sarasota County, but it helps if you like lush green gardens, charmingly restored homes from the turn of the last century, and breathtaking water views.
Part nature preserve, part museum, the verdant 30-acre property on Little Sarasota Bay in Osprey is a fascinating walk through a timeline of west coast Florida history. Visitors wander from the burial mounds and shell middens that native Indians-our earliest Floridians-left more than 4,000 years ago to the comfortable cottages, citrus packing house and lovely little chapel built by pioneering homesteaders from New York, John and Eliza Webb, in the late 1880s. (It was the Webbs who named the property Spanish Point for the way it juts out into Little Sarasota Bay.)?
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Bertha Honore Palmer was the property's most flamboyant resident; the strong-willed socialite from Chicago (yes, the widow of Potter Palmer, of the famed Palmer House hotel) bought up thousands of acres of untamed land in south Sarasota County in the early 1900s and built her 31-room winter estate at Spanish Point. Palmer created magnificent gardens-a fern and jungle walk, a sunken garden-that can be enjoyed to this day, and one of the eeriest and most delightfully incongruous sights is the Duchene Lawn, a classical architectural portal she had constructed on a field of emerald-green grass.
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On Sunday afternoons each winter, volunteers give charmingly amateurish living history performances that re-enact the periods of the plucky homesteaders and gracious Mrs. Palmer. The grand lady herself even makes an appearance, dressed in cream lace.
The nonprofit Gulf Coast Heritage Association operates Historic Spanish Point, which is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. The property is open every day of the year except New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. For details, visit www.historicspanishpoint.org or call (941) 966-5214.
Part nature preserve, part museum, the verdant 30-acre property on Little Sarasota Bay in Osprey is a fascinating walk through a timeline of west coast Florida history. Visitors wander from the burial mounds and shell middens that native Indians-our earliest Floridians-left more than 4,000 years ago to the comfortable cottages, citrus packing house and lovely little chapel built by pioneering homesteaders from New York, John and Eliza Webb, in the late 1880s. (It was the Webbs who named the property Spanish Point for the way it juts out into Little Sarasota Bay.)?
?
Bertha Honore Palmer was the property's most flamboyant resident; the strong-willed socialite from Chicago (yes, the widow of Potter Palmer, of the famed Palmer House hotel) bought up thousands of acres of untamed land in south Sarasota County in the early 1900s and built her 31-room winter estate at Spanish Point. Palmer created magnificent gardens-a fern and jungle walk, a sunken garden-that can be enjoyed to this day, and one of the eeriest and most delightfully incongruous sights is the Duchene Lawn, a classical architectural portal she had constructed on a field of emerald-green grass.
?
On Sunday afternoons each winter, volunteers give charmingly amateurish living history performances that re-enact the periods of the plucky homesteaders and gracious Mrs. Palmer. The grand lady herself even makes an appearance, dressed in cream lace.
The nonprofit Gulf Coast Heritage Association operates Historic Spanish Point, which is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. The property is open every day of the year except New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. For details, visit www.historicspanishpoint.org or call (941) 966-5214.
Ilene Denton is editor of Sarasota Magazine's Homebuyer.