PHOTO GALLERY: See more photos of Red Rock neighborhood
The area known as Red Rock, just north of Oyster Bay, was home to one of Sarasota's earliest settlers. Peter Hansen, a Danish sea captain, and his wife, Maria, established a homestead of 80 acres there on Little Sarasota Bay in 1879, six years before Scottish colonists put the city on the map.
When Hansen came to America in 1860, he soon became a naturalized citizen. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War and did missionary work in Haiti before settling on Florida's west coast.
Maria was a graduate of the University of Copenhagen, unusual for a woman of her time. Her hobby was taxidermy, and there were all kinds of stuffed animals on the property. The children played on a large alligator, and a rattlesnake was coiled around the front gate post to scare off intruders.
This house at 1530 Hansen St. in Sarasota's Red Rock neighborhood is listed for sale at $ 1,299,000 by Ethel Lovelace of Michael Saunders & Co. Built in 2006 by John Cannon using a Thorning Little design, it has 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths in 3,990 square feet. (Staff photo / Harold Bubil)
The Hansens built a frame "cracker" house on the water with porches, put in a small orange grove, grew vegetables and kept livestock. Because Peter was sickly (he had contracted malaria in Haiti), Maria did much of work on the farm besides managing a household of six children.
One of their daughters, Ocean Hansen, married Capt. Louis Roberts, an early pioneer on Siesta Key, when it was still called "Sarasota Key." Ocean Boulevard is named after her.
When Peter died in 1886 of stomach cancer, Maria became the sole provider for her family. She applied for and received a widow's pension from the Navy. It amounted to all of $8. She sold several tracts of her land to help make ends meet.
Maria died in 1902. Both she and Peter are buried in a small cemetery in the Red Rock neighborhood, in back of one of the homes on Quail Drive.
Their family name lives on in Hansen Bayou on North Siesta Key and Hansen Street, which runs through Red Rock, from west of the Tamiami Trail to Camino Real.
Tucked away behind the Barnes & Noble and Best Buy shopping plaza on U.S. 41, the neighborhood today encompasses a number of small subdivisions -- including Red Rock Terrace, Hansen Subdivision, Westbrook and Eastbrook. The northern and southern boundaries are Bay and Kenilworth streets.
As in other West of the Trail neighborhoods, it has lush Florida foliage. A number of streets are canopied by stately oaks festooned with strands of Spanish moss.
You can find just about any architectural style going all the way back to the 1920s. There are two-story, Mediterranean style villas, red brick estate homes, 1940s and '50s ranch houses, Cape Cod-like bungalows and ultra-modern edifices.
Red Rock has million-dollar homes and teardown properties that have sold for land value. In some areas, homes are in disrepair, but the neighborhood is definitely on the upswing. Several large, new houses are under construction, and a number of homes are undergoing renovation.
Ann Martin, a Realtor with Michael Saunders & Co., just bought a house in the Eastbrook section that she and her husband plan to renovate. "Lots are big -- ours is more than half an acre," she said. "It's close to town and you have a piece of land that's big and private. It's a nice combination."
Ethel Lovelace, also with Michael Saunders & Co., agrees. She and her husband, Harvey, have a $1.3 million listing at 1530 Hansen St. "When people come to the open house they say, 'Look, I'm near Trader Joe's,' or 'I can walk to Barnes & Noble and Morton's Market if I want to,'" she said.
A grand entry way to an estate home in Sarasota's Red Rock neighborhood. (Staff photo / Harold Bubil)
The home, a beautiful Italian Tuscan-style villa with a bocce court next to the swimming pool, was built in 2006. The owners sketched the floor plan on a napkin over dinner and had architect Thorning Little execute the designs and John Cannon Homes build it.
"They anticipated that Red Rock would be one of the next growth areas," Lovelace said.
Part of the reason for its recovery is Red Rock's convenient location and amenities. The Siesta Key beaches are less than a 10-minute drive, and restaurants and shopping opportunities line the Trail.
Red Rock Park, a 1-acre public facility with a playground for children, a large open field for pick-up games of baseball or soccer, and a gazebo picnic area is a busy place. "There are a lot of families living in the area, and new moms take their kids to the park during the days and on weekends," Lovelace said.
With the area up and coming, homes that come on the market get snapped up quickly. According to Martin, the house in a pending sale in Eastbrook was listed for just three days. Only four homes are for sale, ranging from $399,000 to $1.4 million.
