missed! Visitors can also catch a local history tour
at the train depot or look through the archives, or
take a walking tour led by Venice Florida Tours. For
history please contact Harry Klinkhammer Historical
Resources Manager for the City of Venice.”
In 1911 railroad construction
made it to Venice, making way for
the development of the area.
Bertha Honore Palmer (Mrs.
Potter Palmer), a Chicago
businesswoman, purchased
60,000 acres. The Sarasota-
Venice Company, Palmer’s land
development operation, platted
a small area south of Roberts Bay
as the town of Venice and offered
lots for sale. The rail lines were
extended to the newly platted area and
the new stop was called Venice Train Station.
The Venice Theatre building was originally an
automobile service station called the Orange
Blossom Garage. It also served as a gym for
Kentucky Military Institute cadets who spent the
winter in Florida.
When The Venice Little Theatre, as it was called,
mounted its fi rst production in the 1950s, it did
so in a borrowed building, had no paid staff and
operated entirely with volunteers with its only
revenue coming from the sales of their two-dollar
tickets. The board changed the name to Venice
Theatre in 2008. Every four years a community
theater world festival is held there.
Today, the Venice Theatre is per capita, the largest
community theater in the United States with an
operating budget of almost four million dollars,
a professional staff, and an honored place in the
history of Venice, Florida.
Here is a list of Venice points of interest along
with structures and locations listed on the
National Register of Historic Places:
• Blalock House
• Hotel Venice
• House at 710 Armada Road South
• Johnson Schoolcraft Building
• Levillain-Letton House
• Triangle Inn
• Valencia Hotel and Arcade
• Venice Depot
• Venice Symphony
• Tervis Tumbler
Information provided by Kara Morgan of
Venice MainStreet Inc. For information and more
details, visit their website at visitvenicefl .org.
34 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • July/August • 2021