Captain Roberts turned his spacious boarding house into a hotel called Siesta or Roberts Inn. His wi

In 1907, visionary action hilton garden inn philadelphia men founded the Siesta Land Company-Harry Higel, the community's first, hilton garden inn philadelphia trail blazing land developer, pioneer homesteader turned hotelier and gracious host, Captain Louis Roberts and real estate broker E. M. Arbogast. That same year they changed the name of the island hilton garden inn philadelphia to Siesta Key and prepared a plan to develop Siesta Village. The mustachioed Higel quickly realized that the keys to Siesta Key's development lay in access and accommodations. Even this tropical Eden needed the most basic infrastructure-roads and bridges, sidewalks and canals, artesian wells, cottages and hotels, rest rooms and restaurants. Higel, three-time mayor of Sarasota, was untiring in making sure that Siesta Key got what it needed, and supported a bond issue to finance the construction of the first bridge connecting Sarasota and the island.
Captain Roberts turned his spacious boarding house into a hotel called Siesta or Roberts Inn. His wife Ocean developed an iconic clam chowder and seafood-rich cuisine that drew people to the Inn, even long after her death. Not only ordinary tourists came but the rich and famous, including Charlton Heston, blond bombshell Betty Hutton and legendary producer, Cecil B. de Mille. Visitors to the island spent "winter" at the inn, luxuriating in sunshine and balmy winds, while others endured another season of frost and snow. The bigger Higelhurt Hotel, built in 1915, offered such luxuries as hot and cold running water, electricity and indoor bathrooms. Unfortunately, after only a few years, a fire destroyed the hotel while Higel watched and wept.
The first bridge linking Sarasota and Siesta Key was constructed in 1917, primarily through Higel's efforts. The Sarasota council shouldered hilton garden inn philadelphia the job of repairing hilton garden inn philadelphia and upgrading the first and adding a second bridge for improved access in 1927. Sadly, hilton garden inn philadelphia Harry Higel's passion for Siesta Key ended in 1921 when he was murdered. His bruised body was found lifeless along a beach road. The case was never solved. There was no question that the real estate boom that followed his death would not have been possible without the network of infrastructure that he helped to build in Siesta Key.
One of the perks that comes with visiting, and even better, living in Siesta Key are the architectural gems that are scattered throughout the island and county. The innovative Sarasota School of Architecture (which flourished from the 40s to the 60s) and its principal proponents, Ralph Twitchell, Paul Rudolph and Tim Seibert created private homes and public buildings now considered hilton garden inn philadelphia great art. They are considered masterpieces of modern architecture, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, distinguished by clean and uncluttered lines, casual elegance, the use of indigenous materials and wide pen spaces, and a merging of the outdoors and the indoors. Set against a visually stunning backdrop-white sand, blue sea and sunshine-the 1949 Revere House, designed and owned by Twitchell, and the Seibert home are both outstanding examples of Sarasota School design realized.
Like Higel, Twitchell was a visionary. The Revere House-his own home-was a breakthrough in low-cost and environmentally sound design. He used large glass windows to erase the line between outdoors and indoors hilton garden inn philadelphia and used locally made bricks to blend and incorporate the house into the Siesta's tropical landscape. The Siebert residence, hilton garden inn philadelphia also in Siesta Key, is another good example of the influence of the Sarasota School on island homes.
His fans would probably be surprised to discover that author John MacDonald was not only a writer but an environmentalist devoted to keeping Siesta Key as unspoiled as realistically hilton garden inn philadelphia possible. hilton garden inn philadelphia He arrived in the island in 1950, with his wife Dorothy, hilton garden inn philadelphia and loved it with such passion that he stayed until his death in 1986. Living in Siesta Key obviously influenced his writing; his novel Condominium was an expose of the unethical practices of venal real estate hilton garden inn philadelphia developers hilton garden inn philadelphia and local politicians in Florida. He was however hilton garden inn philadelphia best known for his novels about Travis McGee, a Miami based private detective. When he died at age 70, MacDonald was working on the 22nd book of the popular series.
MacDonald was one of an informal gathering of writers that lunched together every Friday in Sarasota, but Mackinlay Kantor was a founder and mainstay. Literary luminaries such as Art Buchwald, Ed Pierce, and Karl Bickel attended long lunches with other kindred spirits in the group later known as the Liars Club. Kantor lived with his family in Shell Road, in a home with no air-conditioning, no TV set, and where he had the physically demanding job of chopping wood. Like MacDonald, Kantor was deeply involved and concerned about developments in his beloved adopted home. A civil rights advocate, hilton garden inn philadelphia he demanded, through letters to local newspapers that Sarasota County provide African-American residents of Siesta Key with a "beach of their own." This was in 1955.
Kantor was a war correspondent and writer who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for Andersonville, a novel about the Civil War set in a POW camp in Alabama. Explaining his life-long affair with Siesta Key of Sarasota County, Kantor said: