Long before the circus arrived, Sarasota was a small settlement on the bay — pioneer families farming and fishing the Gulf shore, joined by a colony of Scots in 1885. The town incorporated in 1902 and grew slowly along the waterfront. Then came the 1920s, and a circus magnate with a fortune and a vision, and everything about the place changed.
What Ringling started, the town carried on. Sarasota became Florida's arts capital — the opera, the theaters, the Van Wezel hall, Marie Selby's bayfront gardens — a remarkable cultural density for a city its size. And just across the water lay the other half of its fame: the barrier islands, where Siesta Key's sand is almost pure quartz, so fine and white it stays cool underfoot. Arts and Gulf beach, side by side, became the Sarasota signature.
Why People Visit Sarasota Florida
Sarasota draws a rare mix of arts traveler and beachgoer: a museum and opera town that is also a Gulf-coast resort. Visitors find Old Masters and orchids in the morning and white sand in the afternoon, all within a few miles of the bay. It is cultured, sunny, and unmistakably Florida.
