Map - Sarasota, Florida (Sarasota)

Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area, and is the seat of Sarasota County. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842.

The Sarasota city limits contain several keys, including Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Otter Key, Casey Key, Coon Key, Bird Key, and portions of Siesta Key. Longboat Key is the largest key separating the bay from the gulf, but it was evenly divided by the new county line of 1921. The portion of the key that parallels the Sarasota city boundary that extends to that new county line along the bayfront of the mainland was removed from the city boundaries at the request of John Ringling in the mid-1920s, who sought to avoid city taxation of his planned developments at the southern tip of the key. Although they never were completed in the quickly faltering economy, those development concessions granted by the city never were reversed and the county has retained regulation of those lands.

The city limits expanded significantly with the real estate rush of the early twentieth century, reaching almost 70 sqmi. The wild speculation boom began to crash in 1926 and the city limits began to contract, shrinking to less than a quarter of that area.

The area known today as Sarasota appeared on a sheepskin Spanish map from 1763 with the word Zarazote over present-day Sarasota and Bradenton. The origin’s of the name is disputed, with some claiming that it is based on conquistador Hernando de Soto’s daughter Sara, and others claiming that it comes from “sara-de-cota,” meaning “an area of land easily observed” in the language of the Calusa indigenous tribe. Around 1883 to 1885, The Florida Mortgage And Investment Company Of Edinburgh bought 60,000 acres for development in what is now the City of Sarasota. Many Scottish people began to arrive in Sarasota in December 1885. The municipal government of Sarasota was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902. John Gillespie was the first Mayor. When reincorporated with a city form of government, A. B. Edwards became the first mayor of the city.