One of Sarasota Florida’s most popular areas for shopping and dining is St. Armands Circle. Lined with over 125 high-end boutiques and fine dining opportunities, St. Armands Circle provides many amenities to the residents of the residential real estate community that surrounds it.
The history of Sarasota would not be so significant if the story behind the development of St Armands was left out. Many of the real estate visionaries of the early 20th century were involved in St. Armands’ development beginning with a humble Frenchman by the name of Charles St. Amand. Mr. St. Amand purchased the key in 1893 for $21.71. Due to a mistake in the spelling of his last name in the land deeds, the key later became known as St. Armands key, an error in name that has survived more than 100 years.
Ultimately the development of St. Armands as we know it today was a vision of Circus Magnate, John Ringling who purchased the entire key in 1917. It was his vision of a circular shopping area surrounded by a residential real estate community that defined the current layout of the island today.
One thing that a circus of that area had in abundance was a strong labor force that was in charge of the set up and tear down of a traveling show that was indeed the Greatest Show on Earth. It was during the circus off season that John Ringling kept his army of laborers gainfully employed dredging canals, building the seawalls and building the roads on St. Armands Key. In 1925 this force began the construction of the original causeway that linked St. Armands to the city of Sarasota.
It was rumored that John Ringling employed the circus elephants to drag and place the timbers used in the construction of the causeway, unfortunately this rumor is just that, a rumor. As elephants in the 1920’s were so valuable and were prized much more than many “human” performers, these animals were never unnecessarily required to do menial tasks that could endanger their wellbeing. Human labor was cheap and easy to come by, trained elephant labor was not.
In 1926 the St. Armands community of “Ringling Estates” was opened to the public. The first day over $1 million in sales were estimated to have been conducted. This boom, however, was short lived. As the depression drew near the land sales quickly dried up and in 1928 the causeway was gifted to the City of Sarasota as John Ringling could no longer afford to maintain it. During the depression the causeway fell into extreme disrepair, the grandstand at the center of St. Armands and the streets in the community began to be reclaimed by Mother Nature and that was the fate of the Key for the next 20 or so years. It was not until the mid 1950’s that St. Armands began it’s revival and was once again reclaimed by real estate developers.
Nearly 100 years later the vision that John Ringling had for St. Armands is certainly thriving and has become everything he envisioned it to be. St. Armands is without a doubt as important a Sarasota landmark as the Ca’ d’Zan, John Ringling’s fabulous residence and home to the Ringling Museum of Art.
Today St. Armands real estate is a fantastic investment at these current market prices. St. Armands homes for sale range in price from $500,000 for one of the original 1950’s homes to nearly $9 million dollars for an opulent, modern residence located in Sarasota’s finest neighborhood.
Below are all of the Saint Armands homes and real estate listings currently offered for sale.
Please contact me if you would like to schedule a tour of any of the listed properties.