Venice Seaboard Air Line Railway Station
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Venice Seaboard Air Line Railway Station
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| Location | Venice, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 27°6′3″N 82°26′25″W / 27.10083°N 82.44028°WCoordinates: 27°6′3″N 82°26′25″W / 27.10083°N 82.44028°W |
| Architectural style | Mission/Spanish Revival |
| MPS | Venice MPS |
| NRHP reference # | 89001072 |
| Added to NRHP | August 17, 1989 |
The Venice Seaboard Air Line Railway Station (also known as the Venice Depot) is a historic former Seaboard Air Line Railroad depot located at 303 East Venice Avenue in Venice, Florida, U.S.A.. It is currently the southern trailhead of the Legacy Trail, which runs along the railroad's former right of way. It now serves as a hub for bus service operated by Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT). On August 17, 1989, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
In the 1870s, Richard Roberts established a homestead near Roberts Bay. In 1884, he sold a portion of his holdings to Frank Higel. Higel established a citrus operation involving the production of several lines of canned citrus items, and for the next 30 years the Higel family members were boat builders, fishermen, grove caretakers and contractors. Darwin Curry was the first postmaster. The Higel and Curry families chose the name "Venice" for their community post office, located south of Shakett Creek on what is now Portia Street in the unincorporated community of Nokomis.
The Seaboard Air Line (SAL) was the first railroad to expand its network into Sarasota County, Florida, extending tracks first to Sarasota in 1903 and Fruitville in 1905. The SAL extended their network into Venice in 1911, at the instigation of Mrs. Potter ("Bertha") Palmer, whose family had just purchased thousands of acres south of Fruitville and adjacent to the Venice area. The first depot in Venice was located originally at the junction of what is now Tampa and Nokomis Avenues.
In 1925, Dr. Fred H. Albee, a well-known orthopedic surgeon, purchased 2,916 acres (11.80 square km) of land from the Venice-Sarasota Company. Albee had previously developed Nokomis and built its first luxury hotel, known as the Pollyanna Inn. Albee asked John Nolen, a world-renowned city planner, to design a city on his land, but Albee did not have a chance to implement his city plan before he was approached with a proposal from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to purchase the land in October 1925. The purchase was motivated by a desire by the BLE to increase the union's assets and holdings in the area.[5]
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