Historic district The Harding Circle Historic District is a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

historic district (designated as such on January 16, 2001) located in

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The district is on

St. Armand's Key St. Armands Key is an island in Sarasota Bay off the west coast of Florida in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota, Florida. The island is connected to the mainland by the John Ringling Causeway. History A Frenchman named Char ...

, adjacent to

Lido Key Lido Key is a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota and is connected to mainland Sarasota by John Ringling Causeway. Nearby keys To its north is Longboat Key; to its east are ...

, and is centered on Harding Circle, in the middle of the key, around which is the retail area of the key. The circle was named after

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

US president at the time the roads were laid out by Owen Burns and

John Ringling John Nicholas Ringling (May 31, 1866 – December 2, 1936) was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros World's Greatest Sho ...

for their "Ringling Isles" development during the early 1920s. The streets on the key were named to follow the same presidential naming convention with a large boulevard running north to south called the ''Avenue of the Presidents''. Most of the land is dredged fill provided by Burns to enlarge the natural barrier islands that separate the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

from

Sarasota Bay Sarasota Bay is a lagoon located off the central west coast of Florida in the United States. Though no significant single stream of freshwater enters the bay, with a drainage basin limited to 150 square miles in Manatee and Sarasota Counties, it ...

to the west of downtown Sarasota. Once the new land was created for the development, Burns also built the original causeway leading to the islands from downtown. That causeway leads to and around the circle and to a bridge to the larger portion of Lido Key (another portion of which hooks back to the east and separates St. Armand's from

Longboat Key A longboat is a type of ship's boat that was in use from ''circa'' 1500 or before. Though the Royal Navy replaced longboats with launches from 1780, examples can be found in merchant ships after that date. The longboat was usually the largest boat ...

, another barrier island to the north also connected to Lido Key by a bridge).

Gallery

File:Harding Circle.jpg, alt=, Harding Circle File:Harding Circle 2.jpg, alt=, One of the many statues in the Harding Circle Historic District

References

External links

Sarasota County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places

Sarasota County listings
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs

Visit St. Armands Circle
National Register of Historic Places in Sarasota County, Florida Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Buildings and structures in Sarasota, Florida 2001 establishments in Florida {{SarasotaCountyFL-NRHP-stub