Sarasota commissioners to vote on possible demolition of historic Colson Hotel

Fight continues over historic hotel

Sarasota historians and preservationists have fought for months to save the Colson Hotel in Sarasota. Its new owner has other plans for the property.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Sarasota City Commissioners will vote on an appeal to a denied permit request to demolish the historic African American Colson Hotel.

The two-story hotel located on 8th Street in Sarasota's Rosemary District, formerly known as Overtown, was one of Southwest Florida's only places for African Americans to stay during the Jim Crow era.

Vickie Oldham, President & CEO of the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, said the building is rich in history.

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"Boy, did this hotel serve a purpose. African Americans could not check into Sarasota hotels," she said.

In the 1920s, Lewis Colson, who is buried just across the street at the Rosemary Cemetery, opened the hotel.

"He was one of the...well, the African American who drove the stake into the ground in 1884 to plant the original town of Sarasota," Oldham said.

For decades, the boutique hotel served as a place for African Americans visiting town to stay.

"It housed and hosted baseball players with the Negro Baseball League and it also housed entertainers, James Brown traveling on the Chitlin Circuit," Oldham said.

In April, its new property owner filed a permit to demo the building in order to construct 27 townhomes, but City Commissioners voted against it. The developer will go before City Commissioners this Tuesday with an appeal.

"I am so positive and optimistic that they will do the right thing because they are doing their homework and they are listening to residents," Oldham said.

"I think they should not knock it down and make more condos," lifelong Sarasota resident Luke Rhoades said. "I think they should restore it to its true form and invest in it."

The Coalition hopes so, too. On Tuesday before the commission meeting that starts at 9 a.m., the Coalition is hosting a rally outside commission chambers in partnership with the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation.

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