Introduction to Ghost Stories of Sarasota

As I began to research Ghost Stories of Sarasota, my second book relating to things that go bump in the night along the Gulf Coast of Florida, I discovered an eerie connection with Ghost Stories of Venice.

The characters involved in the first story penned, “Don’t Call Me Madame,” were actors encountered by me during my early years as a reporter for the Venice Gondolier Sun. Also involved was a youthful drunk driver now serving time in prison for his part in the circumstances that led to the story. The tale was told to me by the Players’ actor who experienced the spooky event in the dimly lit theater. It played out during a rehearsal for another show.

Other stories were tied to Venice only because they involved similar occurrences. A story about a mystery lady and a copy machine that churns out multiple sheets of paper after hours and even when turned off, is somewhat similar to the tale of the cowboy ghost in a Venice office park. He too works only late at night.

Then there were stories that were unique to Sarasota, the older of the two cities.

Venice celebrated its 75th birthday in 2000. Sarasota celebrated its 100th birthday the following year.

Venice is a planned community, tracing its history and development to homesteaders, wealthy Chicago widow Bertha Palmer and to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and city planner John Nolen.

While Palmer was a major landowner in Sarasota County, the city of Sarasota owes more to its Scottish heritage and to John and Charles Ringling of the circus family. And, while city planners have appeared from time to time to place their stamp on the city, no one person or group ever planned the entire city to the degree that Nolen planned Venice.

Instead it almost seems as though there was some sort of magnetic force field that drew certain people to Sarasota at a time when many of their friends were profiting handsomely on the East Coast of the state.

No other city in Florida has earned such a strong reputation for its residents’ support of the arts, nor has any other Florida City ever been such a magnet for people in the arts as well as people who appreciate the arts.

Several people with whom I spoke think there is a mystical quality about the area. They spoke of the white sugar sand of Siesta Key’s beach, saying it was pulverized crystals and thus imbued with mystical powers. One lady spoke of the important religious rituals conducted by Native Americans long ago on the same site where the Towles Court Artist Colony is located today.

Whether lured by magic crystals, benevolent spirits or other means, the typical resident or visitor to Sarasota is more likely to be a writer or an artist or a musician than his or her counterpart in any other Florida city. The director of the Sarasota County Arts Council credits the development of the arts in Sarasota directly to real estate developer and circus owner John Ringling, founder of the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Ringling’s museum was established as a hook to set Sarasota apart from other Florida cities during the land boom of the 1920s. From that museum grew the Asolo Theatre Company, the Sarasota Ballet and the Sarasota Opera. Whenever the initial cultural seed was planted, it was certainly well tended by the Ringlings and all those who have followed them to Sarasota.

As I learned on Feb. 4, 2003, the spirits of many of the people who followed the Ringlings to Sarasota, are still there.

Thanks to Rev. Pat Charnley of the Angel Ministries in Venice and Carole Lee, a medium for the Angel Ministries, Ron McCarty who is known as The Keeper of Ca d’Zan (the John and Mable Ringling mansion), a local TV crew and I were able to connect with the spirits of John and Mable and literally hundreds of their late friends, associates, neighbors and assorted circus performers during a special event at the historic and newly renovated and restored home on that very special evening.

The two lengthiest tales in this book grew out of that private after-hours visit to Ca d’Zan. People with an affinity for the arts have continued to come to Sarasota, even during the city’s lean years when the Florida land boom went bust and the Great Depression cast its dark shadows over the whole United States. To this day, the arts remain the city’s most powerful lure, even more so than its sugar sand beaches and magical sunsets.

Those people have continued to expand Ringling’s vision even as the area from Sarasota to Venice has become known as the Cultural Coast.

Perhaps that is why its spirit and its spirits are different from those of other Florida cities.

There may be ghosts along Sarasota’s beaches, but the most interesting specters were discovered right where they were expected to be — in the theatres, the museums, the historic homes and on the sites of sacred Indian lands.

While most West Coast Florida spirits seem to be younger than their East Coast Florida counterparts, a few ancient Indian spirits have continued to watch over their ancestral homes for more than 1,000 years. There also are a few pirate ghosts along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and some of those are nearly as old as the ghosts of the Spanish explorers who have haunted St. Augustine, the oldest city in America, since the 16th century.

Ghost hunting in Sarasota has been decidedly easier than ghost hunting in the much smaller city of Venice. Yet tracking down these spirits would not have been possible without the help of a number of people, especially Rev. Pat, Carol Lee, Cathleen Carillo, Anne Cederberg, Rilla Fleming, Kelly Fores, Carol Harwood, Jeanne Lambert, Kim Noah, Debbie Perez, Ron McCarty and so many others.

As I continue to “go haunting,” I continue to be grateful for the help and inspiration I have received from my friend and colleague, Charles J. Adams III, one of America’s most prolific authors of ghost stories. Watch out St. Petersburg and Tampa, the ghost lady is coming your way next.

Kim Cool
Venice, Florida
June 2003