Sunshine Memories

Life Wasn't Easy for Sarasota's Early Pioneers

But tourists came here from almost the very beginning.

Edited by Kay Kipling and Bob Plunket December 28, 2016

Tourists arrived from almost the very beginning. Here's a hotel back in 1915.

Much of life was spent outdoors. A mother holding her baby circa 1890.

Josephine Picard and her big brother Francis around 1885.

Bertha Palmer arrived in 1910, and Sarasota gained instant credibility as an up-and-coming town.

Most travel was by boat. Here's the famous Mistletoe that plied between Sarasota and Tampa in the 1890s.

Main Street just after World War I. That's the Hover Arcade in the distance. It later became the town hall.

Photography by CityData.com

A former slave, Lewis Colson arrived with his wife Irene in 1884, hired to plat the town of Sara Sota.

But tourists arrived from almost the very beginning.

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