Just south of downtown, over the Orange Avenue bridge across Hudson Bayou, lies one of Sarasota’s most prominent neighborhoods.
Photo Gallery: Bay Point Park in Sarasota
This house at 1011 Bayou Drive in Bay Poiint Park is pending. The listing is through Coldwell Banker at $995,000. Built in 1925, the house has four bedrooms and three baths in 3,287 square feet. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
The two entrance streets from South Orange Avenue converge like the sides of a triangle and meet at small waterside park that juts out into the bay.
The subdivision was platted for 66 lots in 1925 by two developers, J.H. Yohe and J.W. Crawford. They bought the land from the estate of Bertha Palmer, the Chicago socialite and staunch advocate for the Gulf Coast area, who in her day owned more than 80,000 acres from Sarasota to Osprey.
In the 1920s, it was common practice to put in a maximum number of lots in the plat. If you could afford to build a bigger home, you just bought several lots. As a result, Bay Point Park as only 42 homes now, with several occupying three lots.
What sets the neighborhood apart is a variety of homes in such a small area. There are Florida Mediterranean structures going back to the 1920s and ‘30s next to ranch houses and bungalows from the 1950s and ‘60s. Enormous waterfront mansions in many different architectural styles — Georgian, Spanish and Mediterranean, Key West and California Contemporary — line the south bank of Hudson Bayou and the small, man-made canal on the other side of the enclave.
Houses in Bay Point Park come in a variety of sizes, ages and architectural styles. Staff photo / Harold Bubi
One of the two houses on the point belongs to former Florida Secretary of State and U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris. Constructed of sandstone, it looks like a small French chateau with carved balustrades on the patios and filigree wrought-iron balconies.
Yet, despite the diversity of architecture and sizes of homes, they all work together in harmony. Large oaks and palm trees provide a shady canopy for the houses, and lush tropical landscaping adds to the serene, pleasing atmosphere.
“Bay Point Park captures the Old-World elegance, charm and sophistication of Sarasota,” says Glenn Huminksi, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker. “It’s a beautiful neighborhood.”
His listing at 1011 Bayou Place, active with contract, is a Mediterranean-style house built in 1925. Priced at $995,000, it once was owned by Tim Siebert, renowned practitioner of the Sarasota School of architecture. Although added to and extensively remodeled in 1980, it still has the original fireplace, molding and hardwood floors.
Bay Point Park has been a home to royalty. The Russian princess Julia Grant Cantacuzene, granddaughter of President Ulysses S. Grant and niece of Bertha Palmer, lived there for more than a decade after she and her husband, Prince Michael, divorced in 1934.
Another important resident was David Lindsay, the publisher of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune from 1955 to 1982, when he sold the paper to The New York Times Company. His son Robert, who has served on the City Planning Commission, grew up in the neighborhood and still lives there. “When I was a child, there were still some vacant lots,” he remembers. “Bay Point Park wasn’t built out until the 1970s.”
He continues, “People who lived there a long time actively beautified the neighborhood. My family put in a number of large live oaks. We paid to have the utilities put underground so the trees wouldn’t have to be pruned by the power companies.”
Only half of the homes are on the water. The other 21 homes are inland, including six along South Orange Avenue. Some of them make use of the eight slips of the community boat basin.
“The basin is owned by the neighborhood association and operated as an amenity for the inland residents of the subdivision,” Lindsay explains. (Association dues are voluntary and just $100 a year.)
There is a core of longtime owners. “One family here has occupied a house for four generations,” says Lindsay. More recent arrivals include a number of doctors who appreciate the proximity to Sarasota Memorial Hospital and easy access to Southside Elementary school.
“We don’t have through traffic, so it’s safe for children,” Lindsay points out. “People from other nearby neighborhoods come to walk and jog here and go down to the water.”
Needless to say, everyone appreciates the easy access to downtown Sarasota. “You stroll up Orange Avenue and have access to Burns Court, the Women’s Exchange, the farmer’s market on Saturday, and theaters and restaurants,” says Huminski. “People love the convenience.”
Brooke O’Malley, the broker/owner of Club Realty, agrees. She has a listing at 980 S. Orange Ave. The three-bedroom home was built in 1937 and is priced at $1.075 million. “A large attraction is the walkability,” she says. “I’ve had people come up from Naples by boat, stay at Marina Jack’s and walk to see my listing.”
The Bay Point Drive home of David and Ilene Denton has just come on the market at $1.375 million through Elizabeth Rose of Coldwell Banker. The 1925 Craftsman-style house was featured on a recent tour of historic homes.
Earlier this week, Stan and Merry Williams sold their 7,800-square-foot house on Hudson Bayou, at 1459 Bay Point Drive, for $6.825 million.
Because properties come on the market infrequently, they keep their values. “I sold this home to the current owner in 2011 when it was in foreclosure,” says O’Malley. “Even then, its appraised value was higher, and now it’s listed for twice that amount,” she says.
