St. Armands Circle was part of a collection of small islands called the Cerol Isles before John Ringling had a vision to turn the tiny, isolated archipelago into a grandiose European-style residential and shopping destination. (The name St. Armands is a misspelling of the surname of Charles St. Amand, a French homesteader, who purchased about 131 acres on three of these little islands in the late 1880s.)
The property changed hands a few times until 1917, when John Ringling purchased it. Ringling and his partner developer, Owen Burns, called their ambitious project Ringling Isles, and they dredged channels and filled land in what was said be one of the largest projects of its kind in the state.
The project’s design called for shops to ring a circle, which would be adorned with tropical foliage and Italian statues. Outside the circle and along the canals, they platted and sold homesites for $3,000 to $8,000. Some of the original 1920s Mediterranean Revival homes still exist and are as beautiful as they were 100 years ago. (At press time, one of these original homes on South Washington Drive was for sale for $3.7 million.)…