Rich in History at Longboat Key Florida
The island of Longboat Key, where you’ll discover Longboat Key Club and Resort, is rich in history, making it the perfect destination for Florida luxury resort guests seeking to explore the past. The story of Longboat Key involves the Calusa and Timucuan Indians, who resided there in the 1500s – when the Gulf of Mexico was six feet lower than it is today. Longboat Key was then settled by hardy pioneers, who were awarded land grants under the Homestead Act of 1862.
Guests to our Florida luxury resort are always interested in the extensive farming that took place in the area. Tomatoes, guavas, avocados and citrus crops were abundant. The steamboat Mistletoe, out of Tampa, put in at Corey’s Landing at mid-Key and Longbeach at the end of Broadway to load crops and debark passengers during the early 1900s.
Before Longboat Key became a Florida luxury resort and residential community, the 1921 hurricane flooded the Key and ended truck farming. That same year, Florida amended the Florida Constitution to include under it Sarasota County – and Longboat Key was divided in half: Manatee County in the north and Sarasota County in the south.
During World War II, the center of the island was a target range for Army Air Force pilots flying P-40s, B-26s and P-51s. Tourism rose in the 1950s, and Florida luxury resort guests flocked to the town, which was incorporated in 1955, with Condominium living beginning in the late 1970s.
Today, Florida luxury resort guests find about 1,500 single family homes, 7,000 condominium units and about 1,000 tourist accommodations on Longboat Key – a far cry from the fourteen families the Sarasota Times reported as residing on the Key in 1915.