If you have never been to this unique place called St Armands Circle I strongly recommend that you do.
To get there from the I-75 you take Sarasota (exit 39), then West on State Road 780 to St. Armands Key. Take the Ringling Causeway over Sarasota Bay to St. Armands Circle. From US 41 you go West on State Road 780 to St. Armands Key. Take the Ringling Causeway over Sarasota Bay to St. Armands Circle.
These days more than 130 stores on St. Armands Circle serve customers from all areas of the United States and many foreign countries, but in the early 1900' s, this was just a mangrove island virtually unknown and too far from the small fishing village of Sarasota to attract much attention. How things have changed!
In 1893, Charles St. Amand, a Frenchman and first resident of the island, purchased for about $22 three parcels of land totaling approx 130 acres in total. He farmed the land fished in the waters of the Gulf and Bay and, along with others grew produce which he brought by boat to the market at City Pier in Sarasota. In later land deeds, his name was misspelled ' St. Armand' and this spelling is how it is known to the present day.
The 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. However at this time there was not a bridge to the Key, so Ringling got an old paddle-wheel steamboat, the ' Success, ' to use as a work boat. The workers then dredged canals, built seawalls and pavements and streets lined with rose-colored curbs. In 1925, work began on a causeway to join St. Armands Key to the mainland; I would have loved to see the circus elephants that were used to haul the huge timbers from which the bridge and causeway were built!
After a year with much ceremony John Ringling Causeway and Ringling Estates development opened to the public, with John Ringling himself leading a parade across the causeway and his Circus Band playing from a bandstand in the center of the Circle. Every hour there was free bus service from downtown to St. Armands for prospective buyers and sightseers.
Although property sales that first day were estimated to exceed one million dollars there was soon to be a depression in Florida. Soon Ringling had to give the City of Sarasota the causeway as he could no longer maintain it. . The wooden causeway soon began to rot, the Circle bandstand sagged, and the streets became overgrown with weeds.
Some say that for the next twenty years “St Armand slept”! Children played ball where the band stand once stood and few tourists visited. In the 1940s a few brave investors opened restaurants and a gas station but it was not until the 50s that a number of the stores opened.
Today St. Armands is a delightful circle of fine shops and gourmet restaurants. You will find everything in the shops from trinkets to treasures and it is lush with tropical plantings, courtyards and patios. When shopping is over you can relax in one of the restaurants and enjoy a gourmet meals.