Chamber of Commerce was pivotal in city’s growth | Sarasota History, Jeff LaHurd
At the top of the list of factors that made Sarasota a successful city and then county, the Sarasota County Chamber of Commerce is at the very tip.
Sarasota offered everything necessary to become a go-to destination for monied snowbirds, two-week vacationers, and new residents. But having the recipe for success is one thing; getting the word out to the rest of the nation about the joys of Sarasota was quite a challenge.
The chamber, though, with so many astute businesspeople, excelled at advertising, undoubtedly making the group one of the finest in the state of Florida, if not the nation.
Before the institution was formed in December 1920, the Board of Trade was responsible for attracting newcomers. And in the early years, there was not much to brag about.
As the 1896 General Directory of Manatee County, of which Sarasota was a small community, put it: “The groves of oranges, peaches, grapefruit and lemons are now proving a bonanza to the owners, while it has been demonstrated that fine tobacco can be grown near Sara Sota with great success.” But it would take more than the promise of rich soil and year-round crops to lure northerners.
Not too many years before the Board of Trade was founded, Florida was considered America’s last frontier: an uninviting wilderness of a state difficult to reach and infamous for swamps, swarms of mosquitoes, snakes, alligators, wild animals and insects on steroids.
According to historian Karl Grismer, as early as 1901 The Sarasota Times editorialized, “Hotels on the Manatee River are filled with northern visitors. Here in Sarasota our hotels are empty. The reason is simple – we do not advertise. What Sarasota needs more than anything else is a progressive Board of Trade or a Chamber of Commerce which will concentrate on telling the nation about our superb attractions.”
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Sarasota was given a much-needed boost with the arrival of the Seaboard Airline Railway Station in 1903, which made the once daunting journey here as easy as buying a ticket.
Ten years after The Sarasota Times’ clarion call, a Board of Trade was finally formed with Owen Burns, Sarasota’s largest landowner and first major developer as its president. There were 37 charter members. Two years later that number swelled to 205.
The Board was embraced by the small city, with its activities, and weekly meeting minutes reported on the front page of the Times, along with the City Council minutes and actions.
To begin publicizing the Sarasota Bay region, in 1911 the group began raising money for a pamphlet designed to show case the area in glowing terms.
The project was helped along by Bertha Palmer, the Chicago Socialite whose very presence in 1910 Sarasota cast the spotlight on the community for the first time. Two of “Chicago’s leading advertising men” wrote the booklet. The Times reported that they were “enthusiastic in their outspoken admiration.” The pamphlet project was completed in October of 1911, and citizens were encouraged to send them to northern friends and family during the annual Post Card Week.
Mrs. Palmer threw a congratulatory party for the group at the Belle Haven Inn. The paper indicated the grand lady “proved to be a gracious hostess and one can understand why she has long reigned queen of Chicago Society.”
To demonstrate that Sarasota offered more than “bottles of sunshine,” the Board invited 180 members of the American Association of Traveling Passenger Agents and their wives here for a look-around.
The group arrived in eight coaches (at the time, undoubtedly the most people to have arrived in Sarasota at once), and were gleefully greeted by the Sarasota Brass Band and members of the Board. The festivities included a tour around the city, followed by fishing, a trip by motor launches to the Bay Island Hotel and a fish feast.
That evening they were taken downtown to the Belle Haven Inn, where they were served a “Dutch dinner” of oysters, crackers, clam chowder ala Capt. Roberts, sandwiches, and several other items from the menu that one guest described as “the most sensible one.”
The group must have been impressed with the sights. At the end of the festivities, the president of the Association gratefully thanked the citizens of Sarasota for their memorable hospitality, and “the whole body of guests arose, and the walls rang out with their cheers for Sarasota.”
It was assured that the resultant publicity would be “great good for the town.”
The Board, along with the Sarasota’s Woman’s Club, lobbied the City Council to keep the downtown area clean, and to allow individuals to lay sidewalks and make other improvements.
One of the Board of Trade’s earliest fights for Sarasota’s march toward progress was the betterment of area roads. We were still a part of Manatee County in 1913, seeming to be more of a nuisance than an asset. The Board stressed to them the fact that the roads here were in deplorable condition. As member J.W. Ponder put it, “The way this [road] work is being neglected is a crime against the community and an insult to the Board.”
In 1921, one of the major reasons for the break away from Manatee County was the deplorable road situation. One Sarasota City Council member railed at a county meeting that he had gotten two flat tires on the way there, caused by potholes.
As the small town grew, the Board of Trade could boast in pamphlets, brochures, and newspaper ads a very active Woman’s Club; a golf course; tennis and card clubs; two picture theaters; a city band; an ice plant; a telephone system with 300 phones on the local exchange; a new all-brick school building with ten teachers; a progressive weekly newspaper; two banks; ten hotels; and one all-brick “fireproof” multipurpose structure. The last of those managed to go up in flame shortly after it was constructed.
Downtown no longer resembled a frontier town as it began to fill in, offering an array boarding houses, small hotels, drug stores and a host of retail establishments for shoppers.
On Nov. 25, 1920, The Sarasota Times announced, “THE BOARD OF TRADE IS NOW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.” The first president was Hamden S. Smith, a well-known local who had served in several positions, including being the first agent for the Seaboard Railway. Later he was put in charge of the unsightly Belle Haven Hotel, which he refurbished. He was elected mayor in 1910.
The new organization was well-received throughout the Sarasota Bay region. This was an era when the citizens were pulling together to pivot from a fishing/agrarian area into a metropolitan haven for snowbirds.
The Times reported, “Some are always asking, what will they do? We can say this truthfully, that there is no business in Sarasota but what has not increased its profits by Sarasota’s trade organization over the past three years.”
The always supportive newspaper promised the county and the organization could become whatever they wished. “The citizens have shown their faith in Sarasota by becoming members of this organization ... every member should feel a personal responsibility towards the Chamber of Commerce and give it a little of his time and all his loyalty and talent.”
In answering the question what has the chamber done for me? The chamber answered, “We can say this truthfully, that there is no business in Sarasota but what has not increased its profits by Sarasota’s trade organization over the past three years.”
The group bragged, “Every wide-awake man in business realizes the necessity of such an organization and there are but few who have not taken out more than one membership.”
The chamber was enthusiastically supported by the Woman’s Club of Sarasota. After noting that the organization welcomed women, multi-term president, Mrs. Guenther told her members the importance of the chamber to the welfare of the county, saying, “it was the privilege of every woman to heartily endorse the organization.” She beseeched her members to give their support in every way possible.
Not coincidentally, thanks to the hard work of the Board of Trade, the fortunes of Sarasota and the Sarasota County Chamber of Commerce would skyrocket during the Roaring ’20s real estate boom – an era remembered by longtime local attorney Lamar Dozier as being “electric with excitement.”
Jeff LaHurd was raised in Sarasota and is an award-winning historian.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Chamber of Commerce was key in Sarasota’s success as city, county
