Longboat Key's Season Starts on Town Center Green This November

Every Thursday at noon over the summer, Sheila Loccisano filmed a visit to the Longboat Key Historical Society cottage for her "Follow Me to Longboat Key" Instagram page. The Longboat Observer reported that each video ended the same way, with a locked door, no answer and a selfie in front of the sign. In early October, the doors were open, and the video finally had a happy ending.

That cottage sits behind the Karon Family Pavilion on Town Center Green, along Bay Isles Road. This month the Green holds a reopened museum and the island's two biggest November evenings. The plans for its next building also went to a final town vote on Nov. 2, the day before the election that decides whether the building happens at all. For a town that went without a real public gathering space for most of its history, that is a lot of the season resting on one lawn.

A lot that spent years waiting

The Green went through several ideas before it became a park. As the Observer laid out in 2023, a restaurant used the site from 2014 to 2017. Ringling College's plans for an arts center there were dropped in 2019, and the town then took up the green-space idea.

The $2.3 million second phase added the Karon Family Pavilion, benches, plantings and an oval walking path paved with recycled rubber. It was unveiled on Veterans Day 2023. At the time, the Observer's opening line was that "Longboat Key has never had a true public event and park space." Then-Town Manager Howard Tipton described the difference this way in one of his "Tip Talk" videos: "We have this beautiful green space, and that's kind of the difference between having a traditional downtown that's pavement and sidewalks and buildings, where this is green space."

Three seasons later, the November calendar shows how the space gets used.

Two November evenings on the same lawn

The island's two largest community events this month both take place at the Green, nine days apart.

At Laughs On Longboat, the music and food trucks start at 4:30 p.m. and the comedy starts at 5:30 p.m. The town's event listing handles tickets and table reservations through the Longboat Key Foundation. If you plan to go with a group, the eight- and ten-seat tables are the reason to book early.

The Chamber's Light Up Longboat page is also where local businesses ask about vendor tables and sponsorships. The event has always drawn on more of the community than the Chamber alone. In 2023, the Observer reported that the town and local organizations helped out, with Rotary collecting gifts for Stillpoint Mission clients and Kiwanis serving food. This year's partner list hasn't been posted, so check the Chamber page closer to the date.

The oldest building on the Green is also the newest open door

The Green also holds a piece of the island's resort past. According to Historical Society President Michael Drake, as the Observer reported, the cottage was built 100 years ago as the laundry room of the Whitney Beach Resort. It was moved to Town Center Green in 2021.

The society spent several years without a permanent home. When its former space at the Arts Center closed in 2015, the collection was spread across board members' houses until the cottage gave it one address again. Here is what's inside:

• Photos the society calls "the earliest known photographs of Longboat Key," dated 1914 to 1920
• Images from a 1953 fish fry
• Bound copies of the Anna Maria Islander from 1963 to 1976
• Copies of Ralph Hunter's "From Calusas to Condominiums" and "Hail This Feisty Village!" by Lora Colvin Whitney
• The preserved skin of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake killed on the island decades ago
• Plaques that once hung on post offices, bridges and other public places, one of them bearing John F. Kennedy's name

Visiting hours are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Drake told the Observer he plans to extend hours during the busy season, and that the society needs volunteers to staff the cottage. Donations will go first toward a new front door and display cases for more artifacts. Loccisano told the paper she knows of at least 10 people willing to volunteer. If you have Longboat Key memorabilia in a closet, the society would like to hear from you. Drake hopes that pieces removed when the cottage was moved will come back once it is open full time.

The Laughs On Longboat evening falls on a Thursday, one of the cottage's three open days. You could stop in at midday and come back at 4:30 p.m. for the show.

What the parking math says about the Green's next chapter

This month's events are using the Green as it is now. The town has already studied how it would work with a building on it.

The planned Town Center Green Library is an 11,324-square-foot Sarasota County project. Thanks to a town-led fundraising campaign, its community room was enlarged for special events. The Observer reported that the Longboat Key Foundation and the town raised $3.8 million against a $3 million goal, including a $1 million pledge from U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan. The county put $11 million toward the $13.5 million building.

The parking discussion at the Commission's Oct. 5 meeting is a useful guide for anyone driving to an event at the Green today:

1. There are 78 parking spaces east of the Green. Town code requires 39 for the library's daily operations.
2. A survey of nearby lots, including Mediterranean Plaza, the post office, nearby churches, banks and the tennis center, counted 603 more spaces. They could be used for events with the lot owners' permission, which brings the potential total to 681.
3. Any event expected to draw more than that would need buses or another parking plan, coordinated with the town.

For an evening event, the 78 spaces next to the lawn fill first. Allow time to walk in.

The Commission was scheduled to give the site plans final approval on Nov. 2, and Florida voted on Amendment 3 on Nov. 3. The state's initiative summary describes the measure as raising the homestead exemption for non-school taxes, lowering the cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property and restricting how counties and cities may use property taxes. Under Division of Elections rules, it needed at least 60% of the vote to pass. In September, Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman told commissioners the county "will not be constructing a library on Longboat Key at this time if Amendment 3 passes." He also said design and permitting were moving ahead in the meantime, and Tipton said a groundbreaking was scheduled for March. The Town of Longboat Key and Sarasota County will have the current status following this week's votes.

The cottage stays put either way. Brownman told the Observer that neither the library nor a proposed pedestrian bridge between the tennis center and the Green would displace it, and that the town has no other development plans for the park at this time.

The rest of the month starts within a few blocks

The rest of November's civic calendar fills in around the Green:

• Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road: The 46th annual Community Gathering for Gratitude & Thanksgiving is Tuesday, Nov. 17, 5 to 7 p.m. The temple's Thanksgiving Food Drive takes nonperishable donations through Nov. 19. Drive-up perishable donations are that morning, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
• Bayfront Park, 4052 Gulf of Mexico Drive: The town's "Let's Talk Longboat" sessions are on Nov. 18 and Dec. 16.
• Longboat Key Public Tennis Center: Friends of Tennis holds its Longboat Key Masters Clay Courts tournament Nov. 30 through Dec. 6. It is the group's main fundraiser for the tennis center.

Between the Green, the temple and Town Hall at 501 Bay Isles Road, most of the island's civic November happens within a short walk.

If you spend the season on the island and want help coordinating your arrival, or recommendations for local services while you're away between visits, The Meyer Team is glad to help, and we hope to see you on the Green on Nov. 21.