Historic Home Will Become Sarasota African American Cultural Center

SARASOTA, FL — The historic Leonard Reid house was relocated to city-owned property in north Sarasota Friday morning. There, the home will become the new Sarasota African American Cultural Center.

The house moved from its previous location on 7th Street in the Rosemary District to 2529 N. Orange Ave. in Newtown.

“While house ownership has now transferred to the city, much more work needs to be done to prepare it for the SAACC and the opening of a cultural arts center,” the city wrote on Facebook Friday.

The Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition posted to its Facebook page, “The Leonard Reid House is settled in its new home. Yay we did it! Special thanks to everyone one involved with this project. It truly has been transformative.”

The Leonard Reid house is named for the highly respected early pioneer who helped establish Sarasota’s first Black community, Overtown, now known as the Rosemary District, the city said.

The single-story frame vernacular style house completed in 1926 is locally historically designated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The house was transported on a flatbed trailer along a 2.6-mile route that is expected to take two hours to travel. The move happened overnight to mitigate traffic impacts, and public safety officers were along the route to coordinate traffic control. The moving process included temporarily disassembling traffic signal heads at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Way – North Orange Avenue intersection to accommodate the oversized load, the city said.

The move has been in the works for two years. The Leonard Reid house owner initiated a dialogue in 2020 to donate the historic structure to Sarasota.

Around the same time, in August 2020, the Sarasota City Commission purchased a vacant lot at Orange Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Way. Meanwhile, the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition was looking for space in the city limits to establish a new cultural arts and history center.

“Several key parts had to come together at just the right time for this to work and somehow they did,” Mayor Erik Arroyo said. “This truly is an amazing partnership between the public, private and non-profit sectors. Because of the partnership, a beautiful historic structure is being preserved and we’re about to see the much-anticipated launch of a Sarasota African American Cultural Center.”

In January 2021, the city entered into a cost-sharing agreement to move the Leonard Reid house to the recently acquired parcel in Newtown. The house owner was responsible for costs associated with the move, and the city was responsible for paying to prepare the new site to receive the house, including clearing the property, constructing a foundation, curbing, parking, utilities, landscaping and permitting fees. The city took ownership of the house upon delivery to the new site.

In January 2022, commissioners unanimously approved a lease agreement with the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition to use the Leonard Reid house as a cultural arts center to host lectures, programs and exhibits to promote history and education by bringing diverse individuals together.

“The time has come for the Leonard Reid house to move to its new site where the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition will open a new cultural institution in a location where residents are anxious to access the arts and practice cultural traditions,” said Vickie Oldham, SAACC president and chief executive officer. “Our gratitude and appreciation to the city commission for jumpstarting the history project and supporting the effort at every step.”

Leonard Reid was considered the “right hand man” to Sarasota’s first mayor and lived much of his life in the house with his wife and their two daughters, Ethel Reid Hayes and Viola Reid, who also contributed greatly to the community, the city said.

Both women were educated in Sarasota and went on to obtain higher educations, Dr. Cliff Smith, senior planner with the city’s historic preservation program, said. They spent most of their adult lives teaching in Sarasota schools and investing in children.

“The Reid family residence is a special place where books were handed out to Overtown's children and the family's parrot perched in its cage on the screened porch talked to passersby,” Oldham said. “The house will be loved and cared for just as the Reid family loved and cared for us.”