Siesta cottage earns historic recognition

The unassuming, small cottage sits among grand neighborhood mansions and condominium buildings. Its simple, charming architecture is hidden in a deep, thin Siesta Key lot at Point of Rocks — it’s a structure that no one would take note of when passing by. 

But behind its quaint exterior lies a rich Sarasota history .

The cottage, located at 7132 Point of Rocks Circle on a 26,000-square-foot lot, gained an official historic designation at the Sarasota County Commission meeting Tuesday after owner Barry Eckhold nominated the cottage for its intrinsic value, and was granted the name submitted by Eckhold: the Palmer-Honore Cottage.

The 1,516-square-foot cottage will get a plaque placed on the property that explains its historical significance.

House hunters

Eckhold and his wife, Diane, are Lido Key residents and have lived in Sarasota County for almost 10 years. Their Lido home doesn’t have water access, however, so they went hunting for a home to fit their needs last year.

Eckhold said they looked on Siesta Key, but, at first, couldn’t find something to suit them.

“We saw beautiful homes … but big, monster houses — not what we wanted,” he said. 

When the cottage went on the market, however, they were drawn to its simple, “Old Florida” feeling and its unusual proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.

“We had an immediate passion for it,” Eckhold said. 

The Eckholds purchased the property from Elling O. Eide’s trust foundation for $1.8 million in May 2014. They wanted to fix it up, and decided to see if the home had historic value. 

Debra Flynt-Garrett, chairwoman of the preservation board, helped the Eckholds qualify the home as historical.

“It’s so rare that we get the opportunity to save a structure like this — to have property owners who are coming forward and want to take the cottage back to its original configuration,” she said. “It’s something amazing and exciting for us.”

Greg Hall with Hall Architects is helping the Eckholds with exterior restorative efforts to preserve the integrity of the building as well as interior redesigning and updating. Hall Architects specializes in historic preservation projects and has worked on other notable buildings such as the Sarasota County Courthouse Tower and the Historic Keith Farmhouse at Phillippi Creek Estate.

“The house represents the earliest period of settlement (on the island),” Hall said.  “Now, they’re mansions, not modest houses. … It reflects an earlier period of time and what it meant to live on the island.”

Unveiling history 

Tracing the property’s history proved to be a maze of clues for Hall, whom the Eckholds hired to help with the cottage’s historic assessment and restoration. Hall had to follow the records back to when Siesta Key was a part of Manatee County.

“They purchased property, realized they had an early house, and we discovered it was one of the earliest on Siesta Key,” Hall said. 

Eckhold said the rich history that their combined research uncovered was the “icing on the cake” to the unique property: the property has switched hands with some of Sarasota County’s most notable historic figures. 

Benjamin Stickney owned the property in the early 1900s, and sold it to H.H. Honore in 1911. When he died, in 1918, the property passed to his daughter, Bertha Potter Palmer, who had the cottage built that same year and died shortly after it was completed. Her brother, Adrian Honore, inherited the property. In 1920, the subdivision was platted for Manatee County.

The time period between 1918 and 1926 was significant for Siesta Key because, at that time, access to the Key was limited to one road that went down the center of the island. The home was built before the Point of Rocks subdivision was platted in 1920 by Manatee County and built around the same time as the Siesta Key bridge.

“The cool thing about this cottage is it’s so rare,” said Flynt-Garrett. “There are very few examples of those early beach cottages.”