In “Florida In The Making,”the expansive look at the Sunshine State during the Roaring ’20s, authors Frank Parker Stockbridge and John Holliday Perry prophesied that the newly constructed Sarasota County Courthouse would “beyond question be the most beautiful public building south of Washington, D.C.”
Certainly, the Mediterranean Revival courthouse remains one of the most distinctivemunicipal buildings ever constructed in all of Florida, every bit as captivating and pleasing to the eye as when it was completed in 1926.
Dwight James Baum, its creator, was one of Sarasota’s most prolific and sought-after ’20s era architects. He hailed from Syracuse, where he made hisname designing high-end homes and public buildings. In 1931 he was awarded the gold medal from Better Homes for designing the best two-story house constructed between 1926 and 1930.
Baum was invited to town by John Ringling to design Ca’ d’Zan. He was later commissioned by Owen Burns to do the Moorish inspired El Vernona Hotel, the adjacent Burns Office Building, the Belle Haven Apartments, the Sarasota Times building on today’s First Street, Herald Square, and several distinctive homes.
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The placement of the courthouse was in an area that a year and a half earlier was described as scrubland of little value. Charles Ringling bought the property and began a development campaign there which included the Court House Subdivision, The Sarasota Terrace Hotel andthe Ringling Office Building. He and his wife Edith donated the property for the courthouse.
I.G. Archibald another major developer/builder was active in turning the area around. He erected the Archibald Department Store, the largest in the city on Ringling Boulevard, next to Ringling’s office building, and on Main Streetthe Archibald-Crisp building.
The Herald reported, “East Sarasota Stands as a Monument to Men Who Worked,” describing the area as “a sandy and desolate waste where rubbish vied with the tropical undergrowth for a place in the sun to one of the finest and fastest-growing developments in the state.”
Sarasota was desperate to become its own county. Too much money was going north to Manatee, and too little coming back down for public improvements, stymying development, and growth.
Five of the six affected districts voted to break away from Manatee –Sarasota, Manasota, Miakka, Englewoodand Osprey. The favorable vote was nearly 4-to-1.
Effective July 1, 1921, Sarasota County was founded. The victory celebration and parade were loud and colorful. Horns sounded, whistles blew, sirens wailed. Downtown Sarasota was filled with townsfolk, and a large American flag was hung from the center of the City Hall building at the Hover arcade, where a sign marked the temporary Sarasota County Courthouse.
Publisher Rose Wilson, who lobbied for the split, immediately re-christened her newspaper The Sarasota County Times.
But the placement of the new county seat was not a done deal. Interestingly, Venice, the only district within the newly founded country to vote against breaking away, sought thathonor.
This was well before the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers transformed Venice into one of the most beautiful communities on the Gulf Coast. It was the Palmer interests thatsought to make a struggling Venice the seat of the new government.
To that end, they offered property, plus $20,000 in building costs and the promise of constructing more homes. The Venice Committee argued that for Sarasota the courthouse would “merely be another building.” For Venice, it would be a major asset in their development aspirations. Further, “As it lies at the extreme northwest corner of the county (Sarasota)does not seem to us to be the proper place for a permanent county seat.”
But Sarasota was chosen, and initially, the newly formed government shared space with the city in the old Hover Arcade on the municipal pier at the foot of lower Main Street. Later the county offices were moved to another temporary site on Oak Street.
On May 12, 1926, the granite cornerstone to Baum’s creation was put into place by the local Masonic Lodge, an important day for the young but thriving county. All the schools closed at noon to allow students to attend the dedication ceremony. As the youngsters sang the opening hymn, “the men of the county took off their hats and lowered their eyes in thankfulness.”
Hundreds attended as Judge Carrie Fishpresided over the affair with members of the County Commission. Inside the cornerstone, documents were placed relating to Sarasota’s relatively brief history.
The structure, which reportedly cost $1 million, was said to “be the finest of its kind on the Gulf Coast” –a source of pride for a county only five years old and not yet facing the real estate crash soon to arrive that September. The Herald tagged it“A monument to the city’s progress and endeavor.”
Construction by the noted firm of Stephenson and Cameron was temporarily slowed by the rail embargo which tied up building material throughout the state. The tiles for the roof were procured from old homes and buildings in Spain. The ornate rod ironwork was done by the artist Samuel Yellen. For many years, a reflective pool on the north side of the building in front of the tower was filled with water lilies and koi.
On Dec. 14, 1939, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported the passing of Baum, who designed so many of Sarasota’s iconic buildings. A heart attack had brought the famed 53-year-old’s life and career to an abrupt end outside a New York City bus terminal.