Venice ranks No. 2 in state on Best Cities to Retire list The City of Venice has been ranked No. 2 in Florida and No. 14 nationwide among the Best Cities for Seniors to Retire, according to consumer research website GoodCall.com. GoodCall analysts aimed to take into account a wide variety of metrics that would […]

JOHN NOLEN GENERAL PLAN FOR THE CITY OF VENICE The General Plan for Venice, Florida, as drafted by City Planner John Nolen in 1926, shows a community situated on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the southern portion of Sarasota County. The northern edge of the planned area was Venice Bay, known today […]

The History Of Venice, Florida Venice was first settled in the 1870s by Robert Rickford Roberts who established a 121 acre homestead on the south end of the bay which was named for him. In 1882, he sold some of his property to Frank Higel who established a citrus operation and whose descendants dominated the […]

Venice: Exemplar of the American Renaissance By Dr. Bruce Stephenson John Nolen’s plan for Venice, Florida marks a high point of the American Renaissance, a generational effort to mold an unprecedented prosperity into a new urban civilization. The movement took root in the 1880s and died out with the Depression, “the last full flourish of […]