During Florida's Boom Period from 1922 to 1928, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers purchased 30,000 acres in Venice and hired John Nolen to design the city, but after construction soared, land sales slowed, the Brotherhood withdrew in 1928, and the economic bust and Great Depression left Venice nearly a ghost town. The Kentucky Military Institute, established near Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1845 by West Point graduate Robert T. P. Allen, had opened a Florida winter campus in Eau Gallie in 1906 to improve cadets' health and academic performance through year-round recreation. After that campus burned, Colonel Charles B. Richmond chose Venice in 1932 as the new winter campus, and the institute rented and later bought the San Marco Hotel, the Hotel Venice, and the Annex for housing, classrooms, a kitchen, dining hall, offices, and an infirmary. On January 5, 1933, 1500 people welcomed the first contingent of students, faculty, and staff, and their spending, along with visits from family and friends, brought new life to the city. Sunday dress parades on the parade grounds, with inspections and grading, became a popular attraction, with the cadet band and the Kentucky Rifles taking part, while the Sweetheart Parade near Valentine's Day honored five local young ladies sponsored by the five cadet corps, and athletic competitions such as track meets were also held there. The Venice campus closed in 1970, and the institute sold its Kentucky properties in 1973 as decreased enrollment, higher operating costs, and anti-war sentiment during the Vietnam War contributed to the school's closure.