Village district makes date with history

This isn’t breaking news. Actually, it’s more like old history.

In April 2009, the Florida Division of Historical Resources designated a core part of the Longbeach Village as the Longboat Key Historic District.

So, how did Villagers celebrate? Did they mark the occasion Longboat Key-style with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, plaque unveiling and heavy hors d’oeuvres? Not exactly. The designation recently came as news to Villagers, when resident Carla Rowan announced it nearly three years later at the March 7 Longbeach Village Association meeting.

Just last month, Rowan and her husband, Peter, who own the home that used to be the Longbeach Jordan Hotel, which is believed to be the oldest standing structure on the Key, had a conversation with their neighbors, Ken and Carol Weiss, who own a home that dates back to the 1940s. They talked about preserving the Village character — a discussion prompted by the community planning effort facilitated by the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force. They formed the Longbeach Preservation Task Force to discuss the possibility of getting historic designation for the Village. Carla Rowan said that she thought the process could take up to a year to obtain. But after online research, Ken Weiss found that the Florida Division of Historical Resources had already designated a small portion of the Village that includes the stretch of Broadway from Longboat Drive to Bayside Drive along with part of Poinsettia Avenue and Lois Avenue already existed.

“He just about fell off his chair,” Carol Weiss said of the moment her husband made the discovery.
How did history unfold without making a sound?

According to an announcement distributed at the Village meeting, the Longboat Key Historical Society completed a historic survey of the Key in 1999 in hopes of obtaining National Register Historic District Designation for the Village area. The survey found that, although 10 to 20 Village properties would likely qualify for individual recognition, the Village area didn’t meet the criteria for national recognition.

However, based on the 1999 survey, the Florida Division of Historical Resources created a master-plan site file for the Longboat Key Historic District. Additional forms weren’t submitted at that time. But it turns out that a decade later — in April 2009 — the state historical division staff made the needed site division to the Village, took photographs and completed the forms required.

Town Clerk Trish Granger said that the town never received notification of the designation. Neither, of course, did Villagers.

The newly formed Longbeach Preservation Task Force hopes to use the designation to provide information about the historic district. And the Rowans got an official designation letter from the state. They also researched the possibility of getting a plaque to mark the district. But with the cost of a bronze plaque quoted at $2,000, they got a history lesson: Preserving the past isn’t cheap.