Venice Post Office - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Side 1
This marks the location of the Post Office established July 3, 1888 to serve the pioneer community of Horse and Chaise, begun in 1868 by Jesse and Caroline Varn Knight on high ground east of Dona Bay near Shake It Creek. The Post Office was named Venice in Darwin O. Curry's application to the U.S. Postmaster General. Curry, the Knights' son-in-law, ran the Post Office from his home near the original Knight homestead. Mail was carted twice weekly over the sandy public road from the Manatee River to Sarasota, Osprey, and Venice.

Side 2
Alfred F. Wrede, Postmaster in 1901, ran the Post Office from a warehouse south of Curry Creek. In 1912, Postmaster William O. Harrison moved the Post Office to a site near the railroad in present-day Nokomis. By 1916, the service moved several miles south. Walter Surls became postmaster then in a building erected by Mrs. Potter Palmer at the present-day intersection of Tampa and Saint Augustine streets in Venice at the terminus of the Seaboard Air Line Railway completed in 1911. Post offices also were established at Laurel, in 1903 by Wilson E. Stephens, and in Nokomis, 1916 by Alfred F. Wade.

Marker Number: None Date: 1988 County: Sarasota Marker Type: Roadside Sponsored or placed by: Sarasota County Historical Commission Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/12/2020 Markerman62 visited it