Golden Gate Point
Association, Inc.
136 Golden Gate Point #702
Sarasota, Florida 34236
ggp@goldengatepoint.net

Golden Gate Point:

Archived Streetscape :

 

CEDAR POINT

For many years, a small hook of land, west of downtown Sarasota and aligning

Sarasota Bay, was known as Cedar Point, an addition to the original Town of

Sarasota. Cedar Point encompassed two parts bisected by North Gulfstream

Avenue. The north section was much larger than the land area on the south.

Both parts were low-lying and thick with vegetation. A fish house for a fish

export business was located on the north side by 1900. The north side also

became the site of Sarasota’s first jail in 1903. In 1910, Owen Burns arrived

in Sarasota from Chicago and immediately purchased the remaining land

holdings of the Florida Mortgage and Investment Co. that had established

the Town of Sarasota, and Hamilton Gillespie, the company’s Sarasota

representative, including what would become Cedar Point.  In 1912, Burns

began filling the north side and constructing seawalls. Cedar Point had been a

popular place for Sarasotans to park their cars and enjoy the sunset and, in

1914, Burns platted the the north side of Cedar Point as Sunset Park

Subdivision.  The small south side of Cedar Point was excluded.