Post Office (ca 1940). The Federal Building, the first permanently located (though not the first official) post office for Sarasota, was dedicated February 15, 1935. From the late 1800’s to the mid 1920’s, the post office changed locations a number of times, from stores to homes, a bank building, and even to a section of the Cummer Arcade off South Pineapple Avenue in 1923. When it finally came to South Orange Avenue, the city and county governments renamed the streets to eliminate duplications and renumbered the buildings so that 2000 would always be at US 41 and US 301, decreasing going west and increasing to the east, while Main Street and Fruitville Road became the dividers for north-south numbering. By 1953, roughly 90% of the population served by the Sarasota Post Office had new addresses without having moved! -- Chelsey Lucas

Photo courtesy of the Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources.