in, as the Joni Mitchell song goes, a parking
lot.
The Gulf of Mexico was encroaching on
the Hermitage and the years were starting to
show on the old building that was erected
in 1907. Thankfully, an active preservation
group led by Ruth and Carroll Swayze,
together with good friend Patricia Caswell,
strategically nixed their plans to destroy the
Hermitage. Miraculously, the county listened.
“At the time, we didn’t care so much about
an artist retreat. The only thing we cared
about was saving the house. We wanted
to get it on the historic registry. And global
warming, whether you believe it or not, the
waters were rising and we knew it would get
worse and worse, so that was the reason the
county gave for moving the house. The only
upkeep they did was to put it up on pilings.
They jacked it up and put it on a trailer and
then left it there for almost a year. You could
see the chimney peeling back. Eventually
they put it up where it is today and dropped
it down. Of course, then there’s a lot of
extensive repairs that had to be done. The
county was not prepared to take care of it.
They just wanted the land and so rather than
lose it, you won’t see this in any history book,
but my mom called me one day and she
said that we had to take a ride out there. She
showed me the state of the home and said
we need to do something. Patty Caswell was
the president of the Sarasota Arts Council at
that time, and she’s a very good organizer.
So mom said, ‘We need to talk to Patty,’ and
so that’s how it all started.”
As Carroll recalls, “To be honest, you know
they don’t say it in the history books, but
when the County took the property, Patty
Caswell, she invited my parents, my mom
and my stepdad Johnny who was a theater
director, to
meet and
come up with
a plan. When
the county
took it, and
I say ‘took it’
because there
was nothing
we could
do to stop them. The reason they gave
was to extend their parks, which I’m glad
because you know they would have had the
development companies ripping things up
and putting in condos or something. It was
awful. We had to basically rip Mama out of
there, she was holding on for dear life.”
It was in the late 1990s that the Sarasota
Arts Council introduced the idea of
repurposing the buildings into an artists’
retreat. The plan was to preserve the
buildings to benefi t the community and
in 1999, the property was leased to the
nonprofi t Hermitage Artist Retreat Inc. for the
sum of $1 per year.
“For us, it was pretty neat that the Sarasota
Arts Council
was interested.
It was Patty
Caswell, mom
and I, we put
together a
core group
and then we
started inviting
people. Patty
had all kinds
of great
62 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • July/August • 2021
Newly-restored
Dignam cottage.
Ruth Swayze.
A plein air painting class
Whitney Cottage through the dunes.