Venezia Park

John Nolen, a world-renowned city planner from Philadelphia, created the overall design for the City of Venice, and the Venezia Park Subdivision illustrated his concept for a model city. Early developer Dr. Fred Albee commissioned Nolen's original plan for the area, which included a golf course. When the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a Cleveland-based union, bought Albee's undeveloped property in 1923 as part of a $4 million real estate investment, the golf course was moved east and the land was replatted as a residential area. Nolen's concept was carried into this new use and reflected his belief that physical, social, economic, and political facets should be joined in a harmonious comprehensive plan that offered optimum opportunities for working, playing, and living, with ample open green space to promote community activity and aesthetic beauty. The union builders kept as common areas the present-day pentagonal park, also called Venezia Park, and a large section to its north, while a proposed school, playground, and tennis courts were built elsewhere. Nolen designed the subdivision for higher-priced homes and to reflect the city's Mediterranean theme, while landscape architect Prentiss French created the park-like atmosphere along public streets. Young professionals associated with the Venice project occupied some of the homes, but the project collapsed in the late 1920s with the rest of the Florida real estate boom. A few families remained during the hard economic years lasting until the mid-1930s, and later civic and business leaders as well as retirees bought houses there. After World War II, significant construction resumed in the subdivision. A section of Venezia Park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and its northern portion became a hub of community activities with a library, community center, and art center, while the city archives were housed in the rehabilitated Triangle Inn.

Venice, Florida · United States