Past perfect

There are very few places left in Sarasota that capture its early charms as well as Jan Silberstein’s home in Indian Beach. Set on almost an acre of land, and dotted with more than 80 palm trees—plus a couple of spectacular oaks—the property is a throwback to the good old days. Just about the only hint of the present is a view of the high rises on Longboat, barely visible across a wide expanse of Sarasota Bay.

The home is also an important part of local history. Silberstein, who died in 2014, was one of the last survivors of Sarasota’s artist colony, the men and woman who settled here 50 and 60 years ago and gave the town its reputation as a low-key and seductively tropical cultural center. With the recent passing of Eugenie Clark, just about the only one left is Silberstein’s friend Annie Solomon, still forging ahead at 96.

Silberstein’s late husband, Leon, was the original builder of the Sandcastle Hotel on Lido Key, later taken over and enlarged by Harry and Leona Helmsley. When Leon died, Silberstein left her home on Siesta and moved to this island-like home on the mainland. Built in the 1920s on land originally owned by the pioneering Whitaker family, the main house is simple and unpretentious—a vernacular old cottage painted a cheerful blue, with pine floors, 9-foot ceilings and the original plaster walls.

The home’s layout has been altered very little. The living room and dining room (with a wood-burning fireplace) are still intact and as peaceful as ever. They open to an old-fashioned screen porch, which leads to an open deck perfect for outdoor meals. A shady green lawn runs down to the water, and the palms rustle in the breeze. Silberstein never trimmed them, her daughters Jo Ellen Silberstein and Judy Rosemarin report. She loved the sound they made.

The property is actually a mini-compound. Behind the main house is a garage with a studio apartment upstairs, plus another one-bedroom cottage from the same period. Silberstein used the cottage as a studio for her art. She was a painter, but the studio is mostly devoted to her work as a photographer. There’s a full dark room and a large, high-ceilinged workspace, complete with built-in photographic backdrops.

Originally from Great Neck, N.Y., Silberstein attended the Pratt Institute and studied with the famed photographer Ansel Adams. In Sarasota she was best known for her work with the Sarasota Ballet. She was its first official photographer, and the ballet archives are named in her honor. Scattered about the studio you can still see pictures she shot of ballet rehearsals back in the days when the company, so new it didn’t have a home yet, rehearsed at the mall with shoppers passing by.

The ballet wasn’t her only love, though. She was a passionate fan of the circus and served on its board. 

“She was interested in fostering all creative growth,” Rosemarin remembers. “And she loved the clowns.”

It was she who got Pedro Reis and Dolly Jacobs together with Robert de Warren to create a ballet called “Ca d’Zan,” a cross-disciplinary work that combined both art forms.

Understandably, Silberstein’s daughters are hopeful that the property will pass on to someone who appreciates it the way it is.

“It’s unique,” says Jo Ellen Silberstein. “You can feel the history.” 

Indeed, everywhere you look are little echoes of the past. There’s Silberstein’s old potting shed and the aviary where she kept a colony of finches and cockatiels. Inside, some of her paintings still hang on the walls. True, the floors creak a little. But each creak serves as a reminder of a Sarasota that has all but vanished.   

2115 Alameda Ave. is priced at $1,999,000. For more information call Mel or Jan Goldsmith of Michael Saunders and Co. at 356-6673.