625 W. Venice Ave. Architect unknown
Editor’s note: While Harold Bubil takes some time off, we’ll reprise some of his popular columns. This column originally ran on Aug. 5, 2017.
When the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers tried to recover from a failed investment plan for its members’ pension fund, it decided to invest in the 1920s Florida real estate boom.
It bought the land that became modern-day Venice and hired famed planner John Nolen to design a new city by the Gulf. The project had a lot going for it in that the both the location and the planning were superb.
Alas, the timing was terrible. The BLE was late to the game, as the boom, which was based on speculation and hype as much as actual development, started to fade just as the BLE project gained momentum. By the end of 1926, the market deflated, get-rich-quick investors went back north and the $4 million investment was off the rails.
But not before a number of important commercial and residential structures were built, including three fine homes in the Mediterranean Revival style on West Venice Avenue.
The roster of completed buildings included three hotels, smaller homes in Venezia Park and modest homes closer to downtown.
West Venice Avenue “was designated for large homes of richness and beauty,” the late Dorothy Korwek, then director of historical resources for the City of Venice, told the Herald-Tribune’s Dorothy Stockbridge-Pratt in 2001. “When the boom ended, I suspect the homes were vacant for a long time.”
BLE leaders stayed in the homes during visits to Venice; the home at 605 W. Venice Ave. was built for a union executive. Pratt reported that opera and theatrical agent Fitzhugh W. Haensel of New York City bought the home at 613 W. Venice Ave. around 1934.
The architecture firm Walker & Gillette did a lot of work for the BLE, and may have designed the house at 625 W. Venice Ave., which was the smallest of the three.
It is beloved for its restrained, yet elegant faade, which includes a bas-relief of birds, vines and leaves. Inside, stenciled wood beams and a grand staircase provide memory points.
The house, with 3,300 square feet of living area, was renovated in 2001 and sold in January 2017 for $868,000.
That would have bought a lot of real estate in 1926.
“Florida Buildings I Love” is Harold Bubil’s homage to the Sunshine State’s built environment.
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FLORIDA BUILDINGS I LOVE: No. 35: BLE House, 1926, Venice - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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