Sarasota

Sarasota grew from a small fishing and farming settlement in the late 1800s into a cultural destination largely through the influence of circus magnate John Ringling, who made the city the winter home of the Ringling Bros. circus in the 1920s. Ringling invested heavily in the area, building the opulent Ca' d'Zan mansion and the Ringling Museum of Art, and helping fuel the 1920s land boom that shaped the city's Mediterranean Revival architecture. The circus legacy left Sarasota with an outsized commitment to the arts, giving rise to theaters, an orchestra, an opera, and ballet that remain hallmarks today. Through the postwar decades the city developed its barrier islands — Siesta, Lido, and Longboat Keys — into coveted beach communities, cementing Sarasota's reputation as one of the Gulf coast's most sophisticated addresses.