Venice, Florida | |
---|---|
Nickname: Shark Tooth Capital of the World
[1] | |
Motto: "City on the Gulf"
[2] | |
Coordinates: 27°6′N 82°26′W / 27.100°N 82.433°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Florida |
County | Sarasota |
Horse and Chaise | 1800s |
Venice | 1888 |
Incorporated | May 9, 1927, by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers |
Named for | Venice, Italy |
Area | |
• City | 17.78 sq mi (46.05 km2) |
• Land | 16.13 sq mi (41.77 km2) |
• Water | 1.65 sq mi (4.28 km2) |
Elevation | 10 ft (3 m) |
Population (
2020) | |
• City | 25,463 |
• Density | 1,578.71/sq mi (609.54/km2) |
• Metro | 833,716 ( US: 71st) |
• Metro density | 542.0/sq mi (209.3/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−5 ( Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer ( DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
ZIP codes | 34284-34287, 34290-34293 |
Area code | 941 |
FIPS code | 12-73900 [4] |
GNIS feature ID | 0292749 [5] |
Website | venicegov.com |
Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. The city includes what locals call "Venice Island", a portion of the mainland that is accessed via bridges over the artificially created Intracoastal Waterway. The city is located in Southwest Florida. [6] As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 25,463. [7] [8] Venice is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton metropolitan statistical area.
The area that is now Venice was originally the home of Paleo-Indians, with evidence of their presence dating back to 8200 BCE. [9] As thousands of years passed, and the climate changed and some of the Pleistocene animals that the Indians hunted became extinct, the descendants of the Paleo-Indians found new ways to create stone and bone weapons to cope with their changing environment. These descendants became known as the Archaic peoples. Evidence of their camps along with their stone tools were discovered in parts of Venice. [10] Over several millennia the culture and people who lived in the area changed. The peoples who the Spanish encountered when they arrived in 1500s were mound-builders. Venice lay in a boundary area between two cultures, the Tocobaga and the Calusa, and so you can find evidence of each in the area. [11]
The 1800s is when the area saw the first wave of "European" settlers. Venice was first known as Horse and Chaise because of a carriage-like tree formation that marked the spot for fishermen. In the 1870s, Robert Rickford Roberts established a homestead near a bay that bears his name today, Roberts Bay. [12] Francis H. "Frank" Higel, originally from France, arrived in Venice in 1883 with his wife and six sons. He purchased land in the Roberts' homestead for $2,500, equivalent to $82,000 in 2023 [13], to set up his own homestead. Higel established a citrus operation involving the production of several lines of canned citrus items, such as jams, pickled orange peel, lemon juice, and orange wine. [14] Higel established a post office in 1885 with the name Eyry as a service for the community's thirty residents. In February he was appointed as postmaster but the office was shut down months later, in November 1885, with services moving back to Osprey. In 1888, another post office was established, this time with the name Venice, a name Higel himself suggested because of its likeness to the canal city in Italy. [15] [16]
During the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Fred H. Albee, an orthopedic surgeon renowned for his bone-grafting operations, bought 112 acres (45 ha) from Bertha Palmer to develop Venice. [12] He hired John Nolen to plan the city and create a master plan for the streets. Albee sold the land to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and retained Nolen as city planner. The first portions of the city and infrastructure were constructed in 1925–1926. [17]
In 1926, a fire department was formed with thirty-two volunteers. In that same year, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers purchased a new American LaFrance fire engine from Moore Haven that had been damaged in the Great Miami Hurricane. [18]
The first library was also founded in 1926 by the Venice-Nokomis Women's Club. This "library" was a few books on a shelf in a local store. The library had several temporary homes until 1965 when the Venice Area Public Library was built. [19] [20] This building remained in use until it was demolished in 2017 due to mold. A new library was constructed in 2018 called the William H. Jervey, Jr. Venice Library, named after a benefactor of the new building. [21]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 16.6 square miles (43.1 km2), of which 15.3 square miles (39.5 km2) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.5 km2), or 8.19%, is water. [8] The climate of Venice is humid subtropical, bordering very closely on a tropical savanna climate, thus featuring pronounced wet and dry seasons.
Climate data for Venice, Florida, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1927–present | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 89 (32) |
89 (32) |
90 (32) |
95 (35) |
98 (37) |
100 (38) |
100 (38) |
99 (37) |
99 (37) |
97 (36) |
91 (33) |
89 (32) |
100 (38) |
Mean maximum °F (°C) | 83.3 (28.5) |
84.1 (28.9) |
86.9 (30.5) |
90.1 (32.3) |
93.9 (34.4) |
95.4 (35.2) |
95.5 (35.3) |
96.1 (35.6) |
94.8 (34.9) |
92.5 (33.6) |
88.1 (31.2) |
84.3 (29.1) |
96.9 (36.1) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 72.4 (22.4) |
75.0 (23.9) |
77.9 (25.5) |
82.5 (28.1) |
87.3 (30.7) |
89.9 (32.2) |
91.5 (33.1) |
91.5 (33.1) |
90.0 (32.2) |
85.8 (29.9) |
80.0 (26.7) |
75.0 (23.9) |
83.2 (28.4) |
Daily mean °F (°C) | 62.0 (16.7) |
64.6 (18.1) |
67.7 (19.8) |
72.5 (22.5) |
77.5 (25.3) |
81.4 (27.4) |
82.9 (28.3) |
83.1 (28.4) |
81.6 (27.6) |
76.6 (24.8) |
69.9 (21.1) |
64.9 (18.3) |
73.7 (23.2) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 51.6 (10.9) |
54.2 (12.3) |
57.5 (14.2) |
62.5 (16.9) |
67.8 (19.9) |
72.9 (22.7) |
74.3 (23.5) |
74.7 (23.7) |
73.2 (22.9) |
67.5 (19.7) |
59.7 (15.4) |
54.8 (12.7) |
64.2 (17.9) |
Mean minimum °F (°C) | 34.3 (1.3) |
37.7 (3.2) |
42.9 (6.1) |
50.3 (10.2) |
59.1 (15.1) |
68.3 (20.2) |
70.8 (21.6) |
71.5 (21.9) |
68.6 (20.3) |
54.9 (12.7) |
46.2 (7.9) |
39.8 (4.3) |
32.7 (0.4) |
Record low °F (°C) | 23 (−5) |
26 (−3) |
31 (−1) |
38 (3) |
49 (9) |
56 (13) |
62 (17) |
65 (18) |
60 (16) |
36 (2) |
29 (−2) |
22 (−6) |
22 (−6) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 2.68 (68) |
2.00 (51) |
2.97 (75) |
2.47 (63) |
3.25 (83) |
7.81 (198) |
7.39 (188) |
8.34 (212) |
7.16 (182) |
3.35 (85) |
1.54 (39) |
2.31 (59) |
51.27 (1,302) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 7.5 | 5.4 | 5.9 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 12.2 | 14.9 | 16.0 | 14.4 | 8.1 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 107.3 |
Source: NOAA [22] [23] |
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1930 | 309 | — | |
1940 | 507 | 64.1% | |
1950 | 727 | 43.4% | |
1960 | 3,444 | 373.7% | |
1970 | 6,648 | 93.0% | |
1980 | 12,153 | 82.8% | |
1990 | 16,922 | 39.2% | |
2000 | 17,764 | 5.0% | |
2010 | 20,748 | 16.8% | |
2020 | 25,463 | 22.7% | |
U.S. Decennial Census [24] |
Race | Pop 2010 [25] | Pop 2020 [26] | % 2010 | % 2020 |
---|---|---|---|---|
White (NH) | 19,762 | 23,466 | 95.25% | 92.16% |
Black or African American (NH) | 113 | 172 | 0.54% | 0.68% |
Native American or Alaska Native (NH) | 24 | 29 | 0.12% | 0.11% |
Asian (NH) | 152 | 244 | 0.73% | 0.96% |
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian (NH) | 3 | 5 | 0.01% | 0.02% |
Some other race (NH) | 14 | 62 | 0.07% | 0.24% |
Two or more races/Multiracial (NH) | 129 | 540 | 0.62% | 2.12% |
Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 551 | 945 | 2.66% | 3.71% |
Total | 20,748 | 25,463 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 25,463 people, 12,521 households, and 6,810 families residing in the city. [27]
In 2020, there was a population of 25,41.2% of the population were under 5 years old, 6.4% were under 18 years old, and 61.9% was 65 years and older. 3,204 veterans lived in the city and 9.5% of the population were foreign born persons. 54.6% of the population were female persons.
In 2020, the median household income was $61,953 with a per capita income of $60,284. 6.8% of the population lived below the poverty threshold. 90.9% of the households had a computer and 81.3% had a broadband internet subscription.
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 20,748 people, 11,143 households, and 5,926 families residing in the city. [28]
Venice has been listed in several publications as being the "Shark's Tooth Capital of the World". [29] It hosts the Shark's Tooth Festival every year to celebrate the abundance of fossilized shark's teeth that can be found on its coastal shores.
The following structures and areas are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
Venice's newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun. It is published twice each week and has a circulation of 13,500 copies. [31] [32]
Tampa Bay's Univision affiliate WVEA-TV is licensed to Venice, though it is based in Tampa and broadcasts from Riverview.
Passenger railroad service, served by the Seaboard Coast Line, last ran to the station in 1971, immediately prior to the Amtrak assumption of passenger rail operation. [33] Previously Venice was one of the Florida destinations of the Orange Blossom Special. [34]
Venice Municipal Airport is a city managed public-use airport located two miles (3.2 km) south of the central business district. The nearest airport with Commercial Airline Service is Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport.
Venice is patrolled by the Venice Police Department, Tom Mattmuller is the current Chief of Police. The small department has special units for bike patrols, traffic patrols, and boat patrols, amongst the normal police services provided. There are a total of 73 members of the police department that serve Venice. [35]