Venice Railroad and Depot

Venice Railroad and Depot (HM2OR)

Location: Venice, FL 34285 Sarasota County
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Country: United States of America
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N 27° 6.038', W 82° 26.407'

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Inscription
(Obverse):
The first successful railroad into what is now Sarasota County came when the United States and West Indies Railroad and Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railway (SAL), brought its first train into Sarasota in 1903. Two years later the tracks were extended to Fruitville.

The railroad came to Venice at the request of Mrs. Potter (Bertha) Palmer. She and family members had visited the Sarasota Bay area in 1910 and soon purchased thousands of acres, some of which lay south of Roberts Bay. The SAL extended the line from Fruitville through Bee Ridge, where the Palmers' Sarasota-Venice Company was developing land, to the Palmers' Venice properties. The early depot was located at the junction of (now) Tampa and Nokomis Avenues.

In 1918 the Manasota Lumber Company constructed a four-story sawmill and surrounding town of Woodmere south of Venice. The Gulf Coast Railway built a 7.9-mile rail line from Woodmere to Venice, so lumber could be transported to a Tampa shipyard.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) began work on the new city of Venice in 1925. City planner John Nolen had the SAL tracks moved eastward to the industrial section.

(Reverse):
In keeping with the architectural style adopted for the city, the New York architectural firm of Walker and Gillette designed a new Mediterranean Revival style terminal. Built of stucco-covered hollow clay tile with barrel roof tile, the $47,500 depot included segregated waiting rooms and ticket windows, baggage and freight rooms, and a 400-foot long roofed platform. Trains began using the new station March 27, 1927.

During the next four decades the depot served many people and institutions who contributed to the development of the city. In January 1933, Kentucky Military Institute students, faculty and staff arrived by train for the first of nearly forty years of winter terms in Venice. When the U.S. Army established a World War II air base in Venice in 1942, the railroad became the primary route of entry for material and personnel. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus depended on the rail line when it moved to Venice in 1960.

With the launching of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) on May 1, 1971, passenger service to southwest Florida ceased. In 1998 Sarasota County Government acquired the depot, the last one in the county.
Details
HM NumberHM2OR
Tags
Year Placed2003
Placed BySarasota County Historical Commission
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Thursday, October 23rd, 2014 at 2:20am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)17R E 357237 N 2998398
Decimal Degrees27.10063333, -82.44011667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 27° 6.038', W 82° 26.407'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds27° 6' 2.28" N, 82° 26' 24.42" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)941
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 400-498 Venetian Waterway Park, Venice FL 34285, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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