The Edson Keith estate on the south bank of Phillippi Creek reflects much of Sarasota's venerable history. The estate encompasses prehistoric Indian sites and lies near a rancho, or seasonal fishing camp, on the creek named for Felipe Bermudez, first recorded by government survey in 1847. The Sarasota area was dotted with such Spanish camps, supplying fish to Cuba and the West Indies in the early 1800s during Spain's rule. Part of public lands ceded to the state by the federal government upon admission to the Union, the Phillippi parcel was a tiny portion of the 4,000,000 acres purchased by Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia in 1881 for $1,000,000, a purchase that helped rescue Florida from bankruptcy after the Civil War. In 1883, farmer and bee-keeper W.J. Drumwright bought 40 acres of the parcel from Disston for $50, then sold that and additional land in 1910 to George H. and C. Woodburn Matheny, who subdivided the property and named it Phillippi Park. In 1911, Chicago socialite Mabel Linn bought eight lots from the Mathenys and began developing a homesite, then sold the property in 1915 for $7,000 to Edson Keith, Jr., president of a large millinery business and a member of Sarasota's Chicago Colony, which included the Field, Palmer, and other prominent families. In the summer of 1916, the Keiths began construction of their Italian Renaissance home on Phillippi Creek, designed by Chicago architects William A. Otis and Edwin H. Clark, with original out-buildings including a two-story servants' home, garden shed, garage, water tower, chauffeur's house, and sheds for farm and citrus grove activities. Keith died in the home in 1939, and his widow sold the property to Chicago doll clothing designer Mae Hansen Prodie, whose husband operated the home as a luxury inn in the 1950s. Mrs. Prodie retired to the home in the 1960s, and after her death in 1986 Sarasota County acquired the property as a park site through a bond referendum. The property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.