Historic Hotel

The latest treasures the Longboat Key Historical Society unearthed are photos of the old John Ringling Ritz-Carlton hotel on the southern tip of the Key.

It was dubbed the “Ghost Hotel” because Ringling nearly completed the hotel, then abruptly halted work in November 1926 after his real estate, banks and circuses began to rapidly dwindle. His vision of a seaside castle haunted the south end of the Key for the next three-and-a-half decades.

The Longboat Observer traces the hotel’s demolition history as the Key awaits word of whether another hotel — the former Longboat Key Hilton Beachfront Resort, which, unlike the Ringling hotel, has been filled with guests since it opened in 1973 — will be partially demolished for renovations.

Former Longboat Key resident Arthur Ferguson took some of the photos of Ringling’s unfinished hotel in the late 1940s, long before the hotel’s demolition, when it was a popular hangout spot for locals. Other photos show the hotel’s demolition in 1963, several years after Arvida Corp. purchased it.

Today, the Chart House Restaurant stands where the hotel once looked out over the Key and Sarasota Bay.

The photographs, along with a 1982 short documentary about the hotel entitled “The Ghost Hotel” are available on the Historical Society’s website, longboatkeyhistory.com, which has a growing section called “The Digital History of Longboat Key.”

Haunted history
March 1926 — Construction began on the Ritz-Carlton hotel on the south end of Longboat Key.

November 1926 — John Ringling ordered construction to stop on the hotel.

Dec. 2, 1936 — Ringling died in New York City.

Late 1950s — The death of a Sarasota High School student prompted officials to place a steel fence around the hotel.

January 1964 — Arvida completed demolition of the hotel.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]