Communities and Lifestyles
Osprey, Florida
Judge John G. Webb of Utica, New York was the first man to settle in the area he later named Osprey, after the large bird that nests in the loftiest branches of the town’s indigenous pines, live oaks and gumbo limbo trees. The Osprey Post Office was established in 1884 with Webb as its first postmaster.
Today’s Osprey, located on Little Sarasota Bay, is a thriving community with abundant residential opportunities. Osprey is noteworthy for being the site selected in 1910 by Bertha Honore Palmer, widow of Chicago magnate Potter Palmer and an early Sarasota visionary, for her winter estate and gardens.
At Spanish Point, site of the estate, she designed elaborate gardens while preserving early pioneer dwellings and the remains of the area’s prehistoric past. Historic Spanish Point remained in the Palmer family until 1980, when the site was donated to Gulf Coast Heritage Association.
Osprey is also home to Oscar Scherer State Park, 1,384 acres of pine and scrub flatwoods located on the banks of a small tidal creek. The park offers canoeing, a swimming lake, campgrounds, nature trails, bicycle paths and picnic areas.
Casey Key
Casey Key is a barrier island at the Southern end of Sarasota County, in Nokomis, Florida. It boasts several miles of Florida’s most unspoiled and gorgeous white sand beaches. The exclusive Island of Casey Key is home to some of Florida's most extravagant residences. It's also home to the popular Nokomis Public beach. On the east side of the island is the Intra-coastal waterway which is just a few minutes away from the Venice inlet and the Gulf of Mexico. Bait and fishing gear are available at the North Jetty Fish Camp on the north bank of the Venice Inlet on the South end of the island.
Casey Key is a spectacularly lush barrier island 15 miles south of Sarasota. Named for Captain John Charles Casey—an English-born army officer who graduated from West Point with General Robert E. Lee—Casey Key stretches from Siesta Key on the north to the Island of Venice at its southernmost tip, allowing boaters and fishermen easy access to the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the island is a conservation district, established in the early 1970s by the Florida State Legislature. Casey Key has matured well, its charm being its single greatest attraction.
Residential real estate opportunities consist almost entirely of single-family homes and opulent waterfront estate homes. Visitors and residents enjoy the beaches and recreational opportunities on the island. Shore-side activities include volleyball, picnicking and simply soaking up the sun and scenery. Fishing is also a beloved activity.
Nokomis, Florida
A small seaside hamlet, Nokomis is bordered by the beautiful cities of Venice, to the south, and Sarasota, to the north. Once considered a farming town, where cows were thought to outnumber people, Nokomis is now revered as a place where life bends and flows with the water that surrounds it. Spend a leisurely afternoon at Nokomis Beach Park, Sarasota County’s oldest beach, where you’ll find a great place to launch your boat, bask in the sun or plunge into the azure blue surf. At the south end of the park, the North Jetty is a great place to fish, sip morning coffee, toast the sunset, or just enjoy the view of boats hustling in and out of the bay.
Nokomis has the bucolic charm of a small fishing village where local residents know one another and send a friendly wave to visitors and newcomers. There are waterfront neighborhoods located on Shackett, Salt and Fox Creeks, Dona, Roberts, and Lyons Bays and along the shores of Blackburn Bay and southern Casey Key. Nokomis also offers several semi-private and public golf courses. You’ll find every sort of residential option in Nokomis, from waterside condominiums to canal-front ranch or seaside estate homes.
Venice, Florida
As recently as the mid 1920’s, Venice was little more than deserted coastline brushed by woods and farm land. A land boom quickly put an end to that as thousands of people arrived, looking for their place in the Florida sun.
Wisely, the emerging new community chose John Nolan, an internationally famous city planner, to design a city. They also engaged Prentiss French, a noted landscape architect, to beautify it. People from around the country jumped at the chance to be part of it.
The results are impressive—even by today’s standards—and apprentice urban planners routinely study the intricate design. Venice is a meticulously planned city, with sweeping tree-lined boulevards leading to beaches, parks, greenways, the Intracoastal Waterway and residential areas. The Island offers a unique opportunity to live on—or very near—the Gulf of Mexico, with easy access to shopping, the Arts Center, hospital, schools, the library and restaurants. Casperson Beach, at the southern tip of the island, is renowned as the “Shark Tooth Capital of the World” for its abundant cache of fossilized shark teeth strewn along its lengthy shoreline.
Manasota Key
The earliest residents of Manasota Key found a new life fraught with challenges, not the least of which was getting there. From New York, it was a 22-hour train ride to its last stop in Venice. It didn’t get any easier after that. What roads there were weren’t even dirt lanes, but rather two-wheel ruts through dense woods.
One of Manasota Key’s earliest residents recalls an early attempt at newspaper delivery: “Our first Sunday here in 1950, we looked up to see a small plane approaching. Flying low over the house, we heard a thump on the driveway and discovered it was the Sunday paper!”
Much has changed, but the essential charm of Manasota Key remains the same. Today’s Key is a captivating barrier island with just a two-lane road, pristine beaches and a variety of unique residential opportunities.
There are low-rise multi-family condominiums and apartments on the south end of the island. The north end has private homes on one-acre lots, tucked behind lush tropical foliage. Resort accommodations are numerous and several quality restaurants are nearby, or as close as neighboring Venice.
Terry Herschberger
