Longboat Lore: Marker project made Key history

The Longboat Key Historical Society truly made history in late October 1997. That’s when the town, working in collaboration with the Historical Society, erected seven historical markers to commemorate the island’s history.

The project had been a goal of the Historical Society since 1980.

The markers are still standing.

They commemorate the hotel that John Ringling began in 1926 but never completed (it remained vacant for more than 30 years); the island’s farming community that was wiped out during a 1921 hurricane; the Spanish galleons and Indian canoes that began appearing in the mid-1500s; the U.S. Army Air Corps’ use of the Key as a bombing range during World War II; the Coast Guard’s patrol of the island when it was used as a target range; the thatched shack built in the Longbeach Village in 1882 by the island’s first settler, Thomas Mann; and the old town dock, where ships picked up and dropped off passengers, fish and produce before the dock was destroyed in the 1921 hurricane.

+ Key is the top town for Retire magazine
Retire magazine published its third edition of “America’s 100 Best Places to Retire” in 2002 and named Longboat Key the best “Undiscovered Haven & Best Beach Town” in Florida, according to the Oct. 31, 2002, issue of the Longboat Observer.

Sarasota was also recognized as “Best Art Town.”

+ Town sign ordinance declared unconstitutional
A judge declared the town’s sign ordinance illegal during the first week of November 1978.

The American Civil Liberties Union had argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional in a case in which a resident put a political sign on his car in violation of the law.

The ruling meant the town’s sign ordinance had to go back to the drawing board.

Today, town code classifies political signs as exempt from the requirement of obtaining a sign permit, although they must meet other requirements.

+ Classic Cops
Tardy trick-or-treater
Nov. 1, 1982, 3:05 p.m. — Man reports raccoon intrusion in home, DeNarvaez. Racoon treated self to trick-or-treat candy and escaped officer, with candy.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]