50 Fun Facts About Sarasota

The city sits on a lagoon that opens onto which larger body of water?

Its barrier islands include Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Bird Key and the north end of Siesta Key.

Sarasota County was carved out of which neighbouring county in 1921?

The city became the seat of the new county.

What was Sarasota's population at the 2020 census?

The two-county metro area is much bigger, about 935,000 people, the fifth-largest in Florida.

Which nickname does Sarasota carry because of its big-top history?

It is also called 'The Circus Capital of the World'.

In which year did John Ringling move the circus's winter quarters to Sarasota?

The Ringling Museum's Circus Museum was established in 1948.

What does the name of the Ringlings' mansion, Ca' d'Zan, mean?

It is Venetian dialect; the couple had fallen for Venice on their travels.

Which builder completed Ca' d'Zan in 1926?

He also built the El Vernona hotel, later the John Ringling Towers.

The Ringling Museum is the official art museum of what?

John Ringling willed his property, collection and a $1.2 million endowment to the people of Florida in 1936.

Which Flemish Baroque painter is the Ringling Museum especially known for collecting?

The museum has 21 galleries of European paintings and more than 10,000 objects.

Which institution has administered the Ringling Museum since 2000?

Florida State University took over the museum in 2000; Ringling's will said no one could ever change the museum's official name.

A copy of which famous statue serves as the symbol of Sarasota and appears on its city seal?

The seal was adopted in 2022 and carries the motto 'May Sarasota Prosper'.

What is Siesta Beach's sand made of that makes it stay cool underfoot?

Most of it washed down from the Appalachian Mountains over millions of years.

Siesta Beach was named number one in the contiguous US in which 2020 awards?

Only Kaanapali on Maui ranked above it nationally that year.

Which road link carries traffic from downtown to St. Armands Key and Lido Key?

Ringling bought St. Armands in 1917 and ran a paddle steamer to it before any bridge existed.

What series of St. Armands Circle plaques honours big-top greats, like Hollywood's sidewalk stars?

Honourees include Nik Wallenda and the King Charles Troupe.

Which Sarasota youth troupe is billed as the oldest of its kind?

It is run by the Circus Arts Conservatory, co-founded by aerialist Dolly Jacobs.

Which marine scientist founded Mote Marine Laboratory in 1955?

It was the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until 1967 and its early research focused on sharks.

Where is Mote Marine Laboratory based?

It also has campuses in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande and the Florida Keys.

Roughly how many orchids are in the living collection at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens?

The 15-acre garden is a Smithsonian affiliate specialising in epiphytes.

What is the biggest attraction at Sarasota Jungle Gardens, open since 1939?

Guests can hand-feed them and walk among them.

Myakka River State Park has North America's first public what?

The 37,000-acre park is one of Florida's largest and oldest, laid out by the CCC in the 1930s.

Who suggested the purple and lavender colour scheme of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall?

The seashell-inspired design was by William Wesley Peters of Taliesin Associated Architects.

Which MLB team has held spring training at Ed Smith Stadium since 2010?

The Reds trained there before them.

What is the three-letter airport code of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport?

The airport opened in 1941 and straddles Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Which Sarasota neighbourhood is home to an unusual, relatively liberal Amish-Mennonite community?

The reality show Breaking Amish: Brave New World was set there.

Which Cecil B. DeMille circus film was shot and premiered in Sarasota in 1952?

It starred James Stewart, Charlton Heston and Betty Hutton.

Which 2013 Jason Statham film shot scenes at Ca' d'Zan?

Great Expectations and Palmetto were both filmed in Sarasota in 1998.

What is the local mid-century modernist movement blending Bauhaus and Frank Lloyd Wright ideas called?

Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School was demolished in 2009 despite protests.

Which local event became the first international street-painting gathering in the United States in 2010?

It celebrates the sixteenth-century Italian art of street painting in Burns Square.

The Sarasota Orchestra, founded in 1949, was long known by what name?

It was founded by Ruth Cotton Butler and runs a three-week Sarasota Music Festival.

The Sarasota Opera House opened in 1925 under what name, hosting stars like Elvis Presley?

The Historic Asolo Theater, by contrast, was imported from Italy in the 1950s.

From which country was the Historic Asolo Theater imported and rebuilt by the Ringling Museum?

A second Asolo Theater at FSU's centre was built around a Scottish opera house from Dunfermline.

Which lead singer of AC/DC is among the rock musicians who settled in Sarasota?

Aerosmith's Joe Perry and the Allman Brothers' Dickey Betts also settled there.

Which local campus is the state university system's residential liberal arts honours institution?

Founded in 1960, it opened in 1964 as a private college and joined the state system later.

In which year was the Ringling art and design school founded?

Ludd M. Spivey started it as a remote branch of Southern College.

What was the building of the city's art museum, opened in 2019, originally?

The 93-year-old building was renovated for about $30 million as a division of Ringling College.

Which sport held its 2017 world championships at Nathan Benderson Park?

The park's lake has a 2,000-metre eight-lane rowing course and has hosted US Olympic trials.

What is the name of the city's USL League One soccer team, founded in 2023?

The Sharks and Tsunami are the city's rival swim teams.

In which year was Sarasota first incorporated as a town?

John Hamilton Gillespie was the first mayor; the city form of government came in 1913.

Settlers from which country arrived in 1885 after an Edinburgh company bought 60,000 acres?

The Florida Mortgage and Investment Company of Edinburgh drove the development.

Which American settler is credited with settling the Sarasota area in the mid-19th century?

Chicago socialite Bertha Honore Palmer and the Ringlings drove the later boom.

One popular story says Sarasota is named after whose daughter, Sara?

The story, invented in 1906, has a fatal flaw: de Soto had no children.

Which Sarasota TV anchor made national headlines in 1974 by shooting herself live on air?

The station, WXLT, is now ABC affiliate WWSB.

What are residents of Sarasota generally called?

The name Sarasota first appeared on Florida maps in 1839.

In which year did the city begin hosting the annual Sarasota Film Festival?

The festival draws independent films from around the world and claims to be one of Florida's largest.

Before the Orioles arrived, which MLB club held spring training at Ed Smith Stadium?

The stadium also hosted the minor-league Sarasota Reds; the Orioles now use the Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex for their minor leaguers.

What was Sarasota's median age at the 2020 census?

Nearly 30 percent of residents were 65 or older, while fewer than 4 percent were under five.

Who served as Sarasota's first mayor after it incorporated as a town in 1902?

Gillespie was also an early pioneer of golf in the area; A. B. Edwards became the first mayor when Sarasota reincorporated as a city in 1913.

Which golf architect designed the Sara Bay course in Sarasota's Whitfield area?

Bobby Jones was associated with the city's community course, and John Ringling laid out another for a hotel he planned on Longboat Key.

What was the name of the last passenger train to serve Sarasota, in 1971?

The Seaboard Coast Line ran it to the company's depot; today no Amtrak train stops in the city, only a Thruway bus link to Tampa.