1910 - Bertha Palmer’s Impact on Sarasota

Gulf Coast Historical Association Collection

Bertha Honoré Palmer’s time in Sarasota has left an indelible impression of her many s. First is her interest in responsible land development. The present Palmer Ranch area is the home of more than 10,000 Sarasot¬ans. Myakka State Park still features remnants of her ranch and the camping site where she spent so much time with her family. Her home and gardens at The Oaks is the focus of what is now Historic Spanish Point, showing important elements of Sarasota´s history. It houses her old gardens as well as other memories of old Sarasota, from the oyster shell middens of the early Indians to more recent developments. On Sundays, with a bit of luck, one can even meet “Bertha Palmer” in her own person, in live dramatizations of the history of this pearl of Southwest Florida.

Gulf Coast Historical Association Collection

• Mrs. Palmer purchased 80,000 acres of land in Sarasota (mostly farmland, marshland, and undeveloped coastland). Following her death, her family donated much of her land to the state, which later became Myakka State Forest and Historic Spanish Point. Mrs. Palmer encouraged many of her Chicago friends to come to Sarasota, who also made an impact on the area, such as architect Thomas Reed Martin and many other visitors.

• Turned her verve and attention to the development and advancement of agriculture

• Quickly applied her knowledge and experience to initiate new methods that improved the sustainability of livestock and crops in the Sarasota area.

• Much to the chagrin of her male ranching and farming counterparts, Mrs. Palmer initiated great changes in farming and agricultural methods. Farming and agriculture advances initiated by Mrs. Palmer, such as the eradication of cattle ticks, soon became Florida law and were later adopted throughout cattle-growing states. This was a tremendous feat for a woman of Mrs. Palmer’s time.

• Citrus growing was part of her agriculture business and was developed with the same enthusiasm as with cattle ranching.

• Her knowledge of Chicago and other areas in the U.S. as well as in Europe made way for expanded citrus marketing, e.g. shipping grapefruit to Chicago, which introduced a new and valuable food resource to an otherwise remote area.

• Mrs. Palmer kept her old interests from her time with the Columbian Exhibition in ’93. She contributed substantially to the start-up of a Woman’s Club in Sarasota, as she had supported the Woman’s Club in Chicago, and offered her ideas regarding organizational planning to the leadership.

• Gave women in her employ decent conditions and ensured that all of her employees were treated with respect and dignity, more than was customary at the time.

It is widely accepted among historians that Mrs. Palmer died of complications due to breast cancer. As a woman living in the early 20th century, it was unheard of for such matters to be made common knowledge, so little is known about her final days. For such a remarkable woman to pass invisibly is an understandable, but still unconscionable, fate.
It is easy to under¬stand why this woman, unusual for her time, and for any time, can still catch the imagination of visitors and Sarasotans alike, and why Sarasota has decided to make the centenary year of her arrival there a year of broad celebrations “2010 – the Year to Celebrate Bertha Palmer”.