History Of Venice, Florida

Located on the Gulf of Mexico, below Sarasota and above Ft. Myers, Venice, Florida, has fourteen miles of both modern and primitive beaches. It is one of the few cities on the western coast of Florida that is not separated from the Gulf by a barrier island. Considered the "Shark's Tooth Capital of the World", shark teeth collecting is a favorite pastime. Caspersen's Beach, on the south end island part of Venice, is one of the better places to find teeth and fossils. The Homestead Act of 1862 opened the door of Venice. In flooded frontiers' men and women - such as John and Eliza Webb, Jesse and Caroline Knight, Robert Rickford Roberts, and John Slemans Blackburn - who bought acres upon acres of land. Development on a grand scale began, in the 1920s, with a vision for a planned resort, city, and 25,000 acre farm. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 91,000 in Canada and the US, along with a chain of banks from Boston to San Francisco, invested in and enlisted the best planners at the time. They constructed the beginnings of the sophisticated city of Venice you see today. Venice's industries over the course of time have been toy and tile manufacturing, printing and publishing, real estate, lumber and building companies, novelty mills, an ice plant, and marine ways machine company. As of 2004, 19,990 residents live in Venice, Florida, and in the greater Venice area, population is estimated around 87,000.