In keeping
with reminiscing about my Home Town of Sarasota, Gillespie Park is one of the areas
that I have seen change, especially lately, since my childhood days growing up in north Sarasota.
Gillespie
Park has become one of Sarasota's great places to live for young professionals
and retirees and empty nesters. With its great neighborhood feel, large trees,
charming architecture and downtown location convenient to all the of Sarasota's
amenities, Gillespie Park’s popularity is exploding. Nestled between Fruitville Road, 10th Street, U.S. 301 and
Orange Avenue, the subdivision consists of old bungalows, cottages and
Spanish-style townhouses, many of them dating to the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. A
good number have been refurbished and renovated, or are in the process. With
its lush vegetation and stately pines and oak trees providing a shady canopy,
Gillespie Park has a distinctly Old Florida feeling.
So here’s a
bit of history! Gillespie Park honors John Hamilton Gillespie, first mayor of
Sarasota. This land was part of the town's experimental farm and when that
failed due to poor soil, Gillespie laid out a golf course in 1886. After the turn of the century, the subdivision was platted for
residential use. The real estate boom of the 1920s brought a wave of new
inhabitants, and the neighborhood was named after Gillespie, who had arrived in
town as one of the Scottish immigrants, built a hotel on Main Street and served
as the city’s first mayor.
A focal point
of the Gillespie Park neighborhood is the historic park named after Gillespie.
The city created the park on 10 acres of undeveloped land purchased for that
purpose in 1924. Gillespie Park was developed with special emphasis on
recreation for children and, in 1926, won an award in the National Playground
Beautification Contest. An oasis of trees and green open space, Gillespie Park
now provides tennis courts, picnic pavilion, playground recreational
facilities, and features a lovely meandering pond.
If you are
looking for a great place to live in Sarasota that has on old Florida feel but
is close to the many amenities in downtown Sarasota, call me, your Home Town
Realtor!
SRQecoseeker.com, Activerain.com, Sarasota Herald
Tribune, Sarasotagov.com
