John Ringling Vision for St. Armands Key

John Ringling envisioned St. Armands Key as a people-friendly place of broad boulevards, beautiful homes, classical statues, lush landscaping, elegant shops and restaurants, and a central park for musical performances. Inspired by his travels to the Renaissance cities of Italy, he embraced classical sculpture that combined realistic portrayals of individual beauty with the humanistic aspects of idealized beauty. Sculpture became a key part of his plan when he began marketing lots on St. Armands Key in 1927. At that time, the key consisted only of streets, boulevards, landscaping, statues, seawalls, a subdivision plat, one commercial building, and a handful of homes. Because of the Florida land crash, the Depression, and World War II, the commercial and residential districts were not fully built out for 30 years. In 2007, Save Our Statues, chaired by key resident Edward Pinto, sought to preserve the Ringling-era statues dating to the 1920s and to enhance that legacy with 21 new classically themed statues in white marble.

Sarasota, Florida · United States