one time the circus train had 100 cars that housed animals and performers all season long. The circus was so successful that by 1907 they purchased Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. Sarasota was just a small fishing village at that time, and John and Charles Ringling began buying up property in Sarasota. At one point they owned 25 percent of the town. Most of the circus performers lived in Sarasota when they weren’t touring, and the dwarfs, many of whom played Munchkins in the 1934 movie Wizard of Oz, even had their own neighborhood of smaller homes. We met an elderly resident who fondly remembers watching the circus train depart and return each year. In 1927, after building a palatial estate for himself and his wife on 20 waterfront acres on Sarasota Bay and filling it with artwork by the great European masters, John Ringling moved the circus headquarters from Connecticut to Sarasota. Unfortunately, the Great Depression brought financial calamity. Shortly before his death in 1936, just as he was about to lose
A few streets away from the waterfront, a community Farmer’s Market convenes every Saturday morning.
in New York’s Times Square on the day of the Allied victory over Japan. It expresses all the relief and release our Nation felt when that war finally came to an end. Copies of this statue were erected not only in Sarasota but also on the opposite coast in San Diego where it stands next to the aircraft carrier museum, USS Midway. A few streets away from the waterfront, a community Farmer’s Market convenes every Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Sarasota’s historic district at the intersection of Main Street and Lemon Avenue. Beautiful fruits and veggies of all kinds overflow their baskets under dozens of canopies, and homemade breads, bouquets of flowers, handmade soaps, fresh seafood, and gourmet coffee fill the vendors’ stalls for several blocks. If you can’t find what you want at the Farmer’s Market, all the charming boutique shops throw their doors open as well. After walking through this market for several hours and chatting with both shoppers and vendors, we stopped for a cuppa’ joe and a tasty treat at an outdoor table at Pastry Art Café and Dessert. The Ringling - Out of this World. While the beaches, parks, trails, Farmer’s Market, and boutique shops make up the day-to-day fabric of the tourist experience in Sarasota, a trip to the John and Mable Ringling Museum is an epic journey to a different world, and an experience not to be missed. During our stay in Sarasota, we were astonished to learn that Sarasota was once a circus town. Back in 1884, John Ringling and four of his brothers created The Ringing Brothers’ Circus, the first circus to travel the country by rail. At
At The Ringling, a massive courtyard surrounded by the pink-columned facade of the museum is filled with statuary and meticulously pruned landscaping.
SARASOTA
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