St. Armands Key | |
|---|---|
Island | |
 House on St. Armands Key | |
| Etymology: Charles St. Armand | |
| Nickname(s): St. Armand's Key, St. Armand Key | |
| Coordinates: 27°19′06″N82°34′42″W / 27.31833°N 82.57833°W [1] | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Florida |
| County | Sarasota |
St. Armands Key is an island in Sarasota Bay off the west coast of Florida in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota, Florida. The island is connected to the mainland by the John Ringling Causeway.
A Frenchman named Charles St. Amand bought property on the island in 1893. His name was misspelled in land deeds, and this misspelled name is still used today.
Circus magnate John Ringling purchased the St. Armands Key property in 1917 and planned a development which included residential lots and a shopping center laid out in a circle. As no bridge to the key had yet been built, Ringling engaged an old paddle-wheel steamboat, the "Success," to service as a work boat. [2] John Ringling financed the construction of a bridge connecting the key to the mainland and became the first person to drive across it in 1926. [3]
St. Armands Key features a large traffic circle with a small park in the center. The traffic circle is known as St. Armands Circle or "The Circle." The area is largely commercial, containing more than 130 stores and restaurants. The circle contains many restaurants, tobacco shops, clothing stores, and other retail outlets.
The Circle also features a statue walk that features works originally purchased by John Ringling. Ringling's love of fine art inspired The Save Our Statues project which was undertaken during 2007 and completed in early 2008. Additional beautification efforts including on-going maintenance of the statues and landscaping generally consistent with John Ringling’s 1920s landscape plans. [4]
St. Armands Circle branches off into different directions with the shops on the outside of the circle:
St. Armands Circle is also home to the Circus Ring of Fame. Over 150 large bronze plaques encircle the park with the names and histories of performing artists and influential executives recognized for achievement in circus arts and culture. [5] Honorees include Paul Binder, Bello Nock, Nik Wallenda, and the King Charles Troupe.
Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus, which then merges into Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction of Charing Cross at the south side of Trafalgar Square. It connects via St Martin's Place and the motorised east side of the square.
Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost equally divided between the Manatee and Sarasota counties. The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town's population was 7,505 at the 2020 census.
Sarasota is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling, is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor have run shows from 1871, with a hiatus from 2017 to 2023. They operate as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. in 1907 following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy.
Charles Edward Ringling was one of the Ringling brothers, who owned the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was in charge of production and greatly admired by the employees, who called him "Mr. Charlie" and sought his advice and help even for personal problems.
John Nicholas Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1987.
Lido Key is a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota and is connected to mainland Sarasota by John Ringling Causeway.
Otto Griebling was a German-born circus clown who performed for many years with the Cole Brothers and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circuses. He was one of four clowns given the title Master Clown by Irvin Feld.
State Road 789 is a 17.5-mile-long road along the Florida’s Gulf Coast that spans Bird Key, St. Armands Key, and Lido Key, in Sarasota; Longboat Key ; and Anna Maria Island. The southern terminus is the intersection of the John Ringling Causeway and the Tamiami Trail in Sarasota; the northern terminus is the intersection of Gulf Drive, North and Manatee Avenue., West in Holmes Beach. Much of the northernmost five miles (8 km) has been designated Bradenton Beach Scenic Highway.
Sarasota High School is a public high school of the Sarasota County Public Schools in Sarasota, Florida, United States, a city by the Gulf of Mexico. The school colors are black and orange and the mascot is a sailor. The school was segregated and no African Americans allowed to attend until desegregation.
Historic district
Bird Key is a barrier island in Sarasota Bay, south of the John Ringling Causeway, between mainland Sarasota and St. Armands Key. Originally a small barrier island connected to the Ringling Causeway by a tree lined causeway of its own, it was the home of John Ringling North, nephew of circus magnate John Ringling. Created by dredge and fill in the late 1950s, it is approximately 250 acres (1.0 km2) of one of the most prestigious residential areas on Florida's West Coast.
Owen Burns was an American entrepreneur, banker, builder, and land developer who at one time owned the majority of the land comprising Sarasota, Florida. He developed or built many of its historic structures, developments, roads, seawalls, and bridges. He became a leader in the community, contributing to its growth and development. He was born in Fredericktown in Cecil County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Timothy J. Holst began his circus career in 1971 graduating from Clown College, touring as a clown in 1972, and then became the singing ringmaster in 1973 with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the official state art museum of Florida, located in Sarasota, Florida. It was established in 1927 as the legacy of Mable Burton Ringling and John Ringling for the people of Florida. Florida State University assumed governance of the museum in 2000.
Thomas Reed Martin was an architect who was brought to Florida by one of its major developers during the turn of the twentieth century. He designed some 500 residences and various public and private buildings in Sarasota, as well as commercial buildings. His Florida buildings are located from Tampa to Fort Myers with many in Nokomis.
John Ringling Causeway is a bridge that extends past the Sarasota Bay, from Sarasota to St. Armands Key and Lido Key. The 65-foot-tall (20 m) bridge, built in 2003, is a segmental box girder bridge named after John Ringling, one of the founders of the Ringling Brothers Circus and resident of the Sarasota area.
The earliest known identification of the area known today as Sarasota, Florida, was identified on a sheepskin Spanish map from 1763 with the word "Zarazote" written over the location of present-day Sarasota and Bradenton. The municipal government of Sarasota was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902. Incorporation under the city form of government followed in the next decade. In 1921, Sarasota County was formed out of Manatee County, with Sarasota city serving as the county seat.
Edward John "Tim" Seibert was an architect based in Sarasota, Florida. Seibert was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and one of the founders of the modern movement known as the Sarasota School of Architecture.