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| Historic
Site List |
Parks
Locations |
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| Location: Gillespie Avenue and 10th St. |
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Gillespie
Park honors John Hamilton Gillespie, first mayor of Sarasota.
The Stottish-born aristocrat arrived in 1886 as agent for his
father, Sir John Hamilton Gillespie of Edinburgh, a principal
in Florida Mortgage and Investment Co., which filed the Town
of Sarasota plat in 1886. This land was part of the town's experimental
farm. Gillespie laid out a golf course in 1886. He worked to
fund dredging of a Sarasota Bay channel in 1888, and built a
hotel on Main Street. When Sarasota was incorporated in 1902,
Gillespie was elected Mayor. He died in 1923 and was buried
in the town's Rosemary Cemetary.
Gillespie Park Subdivision was platted in 1917 adjacent to this
area. In 1924 Sarasota Developed Own Burns sold the parcel to
the city for a park. During the Florida land boom, a $75,000
bond issue funded development of lawn bowling, tennis courts
and a playground which in 1925, won a national beautification
award. The park supported a natural history museum, Brumby Lake,
a lakeside walkway, and footbridge. In 1977, a Gallery of Patriots
installed in the park's northeast corner featured such Western
Hemisphere leaders as Abraham Lincoln, Jose Marti, Simon Bolivar
and Ingacio Agramonte.
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