Visit the Sarasota County History Center for more historical information.
Humans have lived at Indian Beach for over five thousand years.
Timeline
- 3000 BCE - ?: Indians inhabited Indian Beach, creating shell middens and leaving artifacts.
- 1840: Fort Armistead, a Second Seminole War post located on Indian beach
- 1842: William Whitaker and Hamlin Snell settle in 1842 to fish and then cattle ranch.
- 1891: Indian Beach was platted by Dr. F.H. Williams of Bristol, Conn. He purchased 267 acres for $3,345.
- 1895: C.N. Thompson bought Shell Beach from widow Anna Clark.
- 1899: Ralph Caples bought Shell Beach
- 1903: Seabord Line railroad built to Sarasota. Power plant and ice plant built.
- 1906 - 1908: A post office was established at the docks.
- 1910: C.N. Thompson sells bayfront property to Ralph & Ellen Caples and the Ringlings.
- 1910: Of 1,040 people in Sarasota, 200 were black. Army dredged inland waterway. Bertha Palmer arrives with staff, ultimately buying 100,000 acres south of Sarasota. Owen Burns bought hotel, city lots, Cedar Point, did banking, built seawall, streets, etc.
- 1911: John Ringling buys property in Sarasota from Ralph Caples.
- ?? Brywill plats Sapphire Shores
- 1913: large blocks of Indian Beach property had recently been purchased by J.K. Murphy and H. F. Reils, who formed the Indian Beach Land Company and started pitching lots nationwide for $300 - $2000.
- 1919: Indian Beach becomes a town.
- 1925: Indian Beach is annexed by the city of Sarasota. Restrictions on the estates included that all architecture be Spanish, Italian, or Moorish, no temporary buildings, and that estates could only be owned by whites.