SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Before John Ringling brought the circus to Sarasota and before wealthy widow Bertha Honoré Palmer transformed the Suncoast, there was Joseph Lord, a Chicago lawyer who fell in love with Southwest Florida.
Lord built his house on Roberts Bay in 1896 with a 90-acre citrus grove, establishing what would become Venice when no roads existed and the city had not yet been created.
“I think he is the most important person in the development of the Suncoast,” said historian and author Larry Hume. “And primarily because he got Bertha excited. And Bertha came with a lot more money and resources than he did.”…