Two of Sarasota’s best-known houses will be featured by the Junior League for its Simply Sarasota home tour on Feb. 26-27.
The Taylor-Whitfield Residence, on the corner of Indian Beach Drive and Bay Shore Road, just west of Ringling College, dates to 1926 and has been the scene of many elegant parties and no fewer than seven home tours while it was owned by Pat Taylor for 38 years. Now the house has new owners who have renovated it for its next 90 years.
The Chick Austin House at 227 Delmar in Whitfield Estates will be featured on the 2016 Simply Sarasota Tour, presented by Junior League of Sarasota. (March 11, 2013) (Herald-Tribune staff photo by Dan Wagner)
Also on the tour is another boomtime antiquity, the 1925 “Chick Austin” house at 227 Delmar in Whitfield Estates. This house was visited by the Sarasota Architectural Foundation last summer and is now on the market at $869,000 through Dyrk Dahl of Coldwell Banker Previews.
Tour hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Tickets are $25 for the tour only, and $15 for a brunch from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the community pool area of Granada Park, where one of the tour homes is located. Combined tickets are $35, and are available online at JLSarasota.org.
“In each home, we will have demonstrations and samples from our cookbook,” said Alexandra Harb of the Junior League,” and home crafts and flower arranging. Southeastern Guide Dogs have an ambassador dog on Saturday.”
Proceeds will benefit the Junior League’s selected charities. “We work with Child Protection Center, Girls Inc. and All-Faiths Food Bank,” Harb said.
Other homes on the tour: n 1414 S. Osprey Ave., Sarasota, a year-old house that was designed by Chris Leader with interior design by Punit Patel. “This home is not only designed beautifully, but the homeowner has a very nice art collection,” said Harb.
This house on Lasula Court, north of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, is featured on the Simply Sarasota tour. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 2-16-2016.
n “City Cottage,” 1410 Lasula Court, just north of Sarasota Memorial Hospital. This house was built by Darla Cook of GreenLife Luxury Homes. “Her attention to details and design choices have proven to be popular on the tour,” Harb said. “She builds some cool houses, with a lot of unique, natural touches. She really puts a lot of thought into the details.
The house, unusual in that it is the only residence on Lasula Court, is listed at $897,000 by Joel Schemmel of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. It faces medical office buildings and parking lots, providing a very short walk to work should a hospital physician buy it. n Granada Park House by MGB, formerly known as MyGreenBuildings. Built to standards of sustainability, this house is in the Granada Park enclave off Bay Street near Sunset Chevrolet on Osprey Avenue. MGB, led by Steve Ellis and Grant Castilow, is a custom building firm whose leaders also are passionate about philanthropy, Harb said. “The house shows a very high attention to detail,” she added. “The outdoor living room is my favorite.”
The Taylor-Whitfield Home is now known as Splendida by its new owners, who renovated it to show off their art collection. Malouf and Therese Abraham were advised by architect William Thorning Little.
The 1926 Taylor-Whitfield House in Sarasota's Indian Beach neighborhood has been renamed Splendida by its new owners, who have renovated the structure. It is among the homes to be featured on the Junior League's Simply Sarasota tour on Feb. 26-27. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 10-20-2015.
The Abrahams’ changes include renovating the landscape, painting the eyebrow arches on the front of the house a darker color, adding new outdoor lighting fixtures, converting the porte cochere into a patio, adding a parking area behind the house, redoing the stenciling inside the porch with the copper roof, opening the kitchen to the dining room, converting the maid’s quarters to a laundry room and refinishing the oak floors.
The driveway exit on the curve where Indian Beach Road meets Bay Shore Road has been eliminated.
The house, which longtime resident Pat Taylor sold in August 2014 for $1.51 million, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has long been considered one of the most attractive houses in the city. The yellow Spanish-style house was an instant classic when it was built in 1926 during the Florida Land Boom. It was built by J.G. Whitfield, brother of the man who developed Whitfield Estates.
The house was built by Russell Currin, a prominent boomtime builder. But its architect is unknown; it certainly has the quality to have been designed by either Dwight James Baum or Thomas Reed Martin, Sarasota’s top architects of the day.
A newcomer to Sarasota in 1976, Pat Taylor remembers exploring on bicycle with her two young children and heading to Indian Beach.
“When we got to this house — I still remember it — my heart literally stopped beating,” Taylor told the Herald-Tribune in 2013.
“I got up on my bike across the street and I just stood there and looked at this house, and I said, ‘God, I hope someday you will let me own this house.’ ” Two years later, her prayer was answered.
The Chick Austin House's grand ballroom, which today has three glamorous chandeliers added by owner Jerry Chaplain. The ornate fireplace is the focal point of the room. When Chick Austin owned the home, it was locally known as a party palace. (March 11, 2013) (Herald-Tribune staff photo by Dan Wagner)
At 227 Delmar, the Chick Austin House is noted for its baroque décor and a 40- by 20-foot ballroom. Austin, then in his mid-40s, came to Sarasota from the Wadsworth Atheneum museum in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1946 to head the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, ownership of which had been tied up in court for 10 years after John Ringling’s death. Creditors fought with the state of Florida over Ringling’s museum, mansion and 66 acres, which he left to the people of the State of Florida in his will. When the state won control, it hired Austin.
Considered an expert in all facets of art and design, Austin served, at least seasonally, until his death in 1957 from lung cancer. He is credited with bringing the Asolo Theater from Italy to the museum, and promoting the museum’s collection of baroque art to a national audience.
His house became a leading party venue. Guests included actresses Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury, Prince Rainer of Monaco and entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee.
Also during the tour:
Young ladies from Girls Inc. will show how to make oreo truffles, and children from the Junior League’s “Kids in the Kitchen” program will present a cooking demonstration.
This house in Sarasota's Granada Park, west of the Trail off Bay Road, was built by MGB Homes and is featured in the Junior League's Simply Sarasota tour. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 2-16-2016.
“One of our signature causes is providing hunger relief,” said Harb. “We have partnered with All Faiths Food Bank in our efforts. One of our programs is part of their ‘Cooking Matters’ series. The Junior League of Sarasota presents slow-cookers to all of the students and teaches them how to use them so they can continue to use their newly acquired skills in healthy and budget-minded meal preparation.”
The Slow Cooker Committee also will demonstrate slow-cooker cooking. “At the Abrahams’ home, we will be accepting peanut butter or raisin snack packs. Those who donate will be entered into a raffle for ‘Salad for a Year’ at Panera,” Harb said.
“To celebrate the end of the tour, we will be having a ‘Toast of the Tour Happy Hour’ from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Terrace at the Surf Shack on St. Armands. We will be selling raffle tickets for a lot of great items, and we will have guest bartenders,” Harb said. “Though most raffle items will be at the happy hour, we have a raffle ticket for sale at the homes for two round trip Jet Blue tickets.”
