The Field Club Sarasota, FL | Danielle Gladding & Co.

The Field Club is a private tennis, yacht and social club on the east shore of Roberts Bay in Sarasota, occupying a 1920s David Adler estate that was sold in 1957 on terms written specifically to keep it from being subdivided. That last clause is the whole story, and it is the reason the southern edge of Oyster Bay looks the way it does today.

In 1957 the estate came up for sale. The owners were in their eighties and had decided to stop coming south for the winter. Postwar Sarasota was growing hard in that direction. The parcel was large, the water was on the west side of it, and the arithmetic was not complicated.

The house should have come down.

It did not, and the reason it did not is worth a buyer’s attention rather than only a historian’s.

A Chicago House on a Florida Bay

Stanley and Sara Field were part of the Chicago world built around Marshall Field & Company, and they were connected by marriage to the Palmer family, whose holdings in and around Sarasota were extensive. One of Sara’s sisters married Honore Palmer, who built here; Sara visited, was taken with the place, and persuaded her husband to buy nearby. They named the property Wealaka, rendered as Laughing Waters.

For the house they hired David Adler.

That name means something in American architecture. Adler built his reputation on great houses for exactly this clientele, completing a reported forty-three of them over his career for families including the Blairs, the Palmers and the Fields. His work was restrained, scholarly, expensively simple, and unusually good at siting a building on its ground. For Sarasota he worked in an eighteenth-century Spanish villa idiom, which suited both the light and the moment: white stucco, red tile, and detailing carried through from the exterior into custom doors, window grilles and millwork inside.

The move that makes the house extraordinary is the water. Adler cut a lagoon behind the house and ran a canal in from the bay, then set the main block of the building across the canal entrance, with large windows facing both the open water and the lagoon. You could take a boat under your own house. A formal entry sequence, allees framing the approach, a walled garden, a boathouse over the water and a two-story Mediterranean gatehouse completed it.

Construction began in 1925 and took two years. The Fields wintered there from 1927 into the mid-1950s, roughly thirty seasons.

1957, and the Instruction That Saved It

By 1957 both Fields were in their eighties and had decided to remain in Illinois year-round. What happened next is the part almost every account of this property leaves out, and it is the part a real estate audience should find most interesting.

Stanley Field did not list the estate on the open market. He engaged a local Realtor, John McCulley, and gave him an instruction rather than a mandate to maximize: offer the property, intact, for $175,000, and offer it only to a club that would use it for club purposes. The club’s own history records that the parcel was worth considerably more than that on the open market as subdivision land. Field took the discount on purpose. The restriction was the point.

The first offer went to the Sarasota Yacht Club, which declined it.

A group of Sarasota residents then organized around the offer, formed a board of directors, chose the name Field Club in honor of the original owners, and closed on July 16, 1957. Architects were engaged to adapt the residence for club use — the front entry reworked into a service approach, kitchen facilities added, rooms reconfigured for dining and social space — while the exterior of Adler’s building was substantially preserved. Tennis courts, a pool and expanded docks came afterward.

On June 5, 1986, the Field Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places, listed at Field Road and Camino Real under reference number 86001238.

What One Seller’s Instruction Did to the Neighborhood

Development is a one-way process. A parcel that gets subdivided is subdivided permanently, and a house that comes down does not go back up. Because this estate was not subdivided in 1957, the land at the southern edge of what became Oyster Bay came off the development board for good. Everything around it developed as residential lots at 1950s scale, generous and shaded, with a preserved historic property as their southern boundary.

For a buyer, that adjacency is worth understanding in practical terms rather than sentimental ones. A National Register property held by a private club is about as durable a neighbor as a Sarasota parcel gets. It is not becoming a condominium. It is not becoming anything. Views and quiet that depend on a neighboring parcel staying as it is are usually a bet. Here they are closer to a certainty.

The Club Today

At this time the Field Club operates as a private tennis, yacht and social club on its bayfront grounds, and the historic buildings are still the heart of it.

On the water, the club runs a marina with a dockmaster in attendance daily. Its own navigation guidance places it on the easterly shore of Roberts Bay, roughly three miles south of the main business section of Sarasota, reached by turning east at marker 78 on the Intracoastal Waterway and following the club markers in. It monitors VHF channel 16 and works channel 68. At this time it is a member of the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs, which carries reciprocal privileges at fellow FCYC clubs around the state.

On land, the amenities are comprehensive without being sprawling: clay tennis courts with a year-round program of clinics, junior sessions, camps and intra-club play under a director of tennis; a pool; wellness facilities; and dining that runs from a formal dining room to a casual grill, a terrace and poolside service.

Tennis is the identity. A great many Sarasota clubs have courts. This one has a program, and the difference shows up in whether a new member actually gets into games.

Club terms, categories, fees and reciprocity arrangements change, so anything published about them — here or anywhere — has a shelf life. Confirm current details with the club directly.

The Thing Buyers Get Wrong

Buying a house near the Field Club does not make you a member of the Field Club.

That belongs on its own line, because listing copy in this part of the market routinely describes the club in a way that reads like a neighborhood amenity: the pool, the courts, the docks, the dining, all set out alongside the house’s own features. It is not an amenity. It is a separate private institution with its own membership process, its own requirements and its own timeline, and none of it conveys in a deed.

The practical consequence is simple. If part of why you want to live here is the club, the club is a second transaction and it needs its own diligence. Speak with the club. Understand the process and the current terms. Know where you stand before you are under contract on a house, not after. We would rather give up a selling point than let that surface after closing.

The Questions to Ask Any Private Club Before Joining

These apply to every private club in this market, not only this one.

• What is the total annual cost — initiation, dues, food and beverage minimums, capital assessments — and what has each of those done over the last five years?

• Is there a waitlist, and what does the process actually involve? Sponsorship requirements vary widely and are not always obvious from the outside.

• What happens to the initiation if you resign, or if the membership passes to a spouse or an estate? Refundable, partially refundable and non-refundable structures all exist, and the difference is significant money.

• Is there a capital plan, and is the club funding it from reserves or from assessments? A historic property carries maintenance obligations a 2010 building does not.

• If dockage matters: is a slip assigned, leased, waitlisted or owned? Those are four different things.

Where the Field Club Sits Among Sarasota’s Private Clubs

Sarasota has several private clubs that buyers weigh against one another, and they are different animals rather than variations on one theme.

The Field Club is the historic, intimate, tennis-centered one, on a preserved estate with a marina attached. The Sarasota Yacht Club — the club that turned down the Field property in 1957 — is the downtown bayfront club built around boating. The Resort at Longboat Key Club is, at this time, the full-service resort club, with golf, the Tennis Gardens, spa and dining attached to a resort operation on the island. The Moorings is not a club at all in the same sense: it is a marina where slips are held as real property.

That last distinction is the one that trips people up, and it deserves its own piece.

If You Are Looking at Homes Near the Field Club

The neighborhood beside it is Oyster Bay, recorded as Oyster Bay Estates, and it is more varied than it looks from a listing feed — bayfront parcels on Roberts Bay, canal lots with dock access, lakefront lots on an interior lake, and dry interior lots, all on the same streets and all listed under one name. Which of the four you buy matters more than which street you are on. How the neighborhood formed is its own story, and it starts with this house.

North of it sit San Remo Estates and the rest of the West of the Trail corridor running up toward downtown. Everything in that corridor shares a position argument: the hospital, a walkable village, downtown and a beach bridge from the same driveway, without island season.

If you are relocating from out of state, work through the tax, homestead, insurance and residency questions before the house questions, because they shape what you should be looking at in the first place. Our Sarasota Relocation Guide puts all of it in one place.

For the full picture of the neighborhood beside the club — the streets, the four water conditions, the association and what to check before writing an offer — see our Oyster Bay Estates neighborhood page.

A Private Conversation Costs Nothing

If the Field Club is part of why this corner of Sarasota appeals to you, talk to us before you choose a house on that assumption. Twenty minutes will clarify what the club is and is not, what joining any club here actually involves, and which of Oyster Bay’s four water conditions fits how you want to live. A private conversation costs nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the history of the Field Club in Sarasota?

The Field Club in Sarasota began as Wealaka, the winter estate of Stanley and Sara Field, designed by Chicago architect David Adler and built between 1925 and 1927 on the east shore of Roberts Bay. In 1957 Stanley Field instructed a local Realtor to offer the property intact for $175,000, and only to a club that would use it for club purposes, rather than sell it for subdivision at its open-market value. A group of Sarasota residents accepted those terms and closed on July 16, 1957, and the Field Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1986.

Who designed the Field Club building?

The historic building at the Field Club was designed by David Adler, a Chicago architect known for the great houses he built for Midwestern industrial and retailing families. He worked in an eighteenth-century Spanish villa idiom and cut a canal in from the bay to a lagoon behind the house, setting the main block of the building across the canal entrance so a boat could pass beneath it.

Where is the Field Club located?

The Field Club sits on the easterly shore of Roberts Bay in Sarasota, in the West of the Trail corridor south of Siesta Drive, adjacent to the Oyster Bay Estates neighborhood, and is listed on the National Register at Field Road and Camino Real. By water it is reached from the Intracoastal Waterway by turning east at marker 78 and following the club markers into the marina.

What amenities does the Field Club have?

At this time the Field Club operates as a private tennis, yacht and social club with a marina staffed by a dockmaster, clay tennis courts with a year-round instructional program, a pool, wellness facilities, and dining that ranges from a formal dining room to a casual grill, terrace and poolside service. At this time it is a member of the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs, which carries reciprocal privileges at fellow FCYC clubs.

Does buying a home in Oyster Bay include Field Club membership?

No — Field Club membership does not convey with a home purchase in Oyster Bay or anywhere else. The club is a separate private institution with its own membership process, requirements and terms, and nothing about it passes in a deed. A buyer for whom club access is part of the appeal should treat it as a separate transaction with its own timeline and confirm their position with the club before going under contract on a house.

How much does it cost to join the Field Club?

The Field Club does not publish a membership fee schedule, and current initiation, dues and category terms are available only from the club directly. Before joining any private club in this market, ask about the total annual cost — initiation, dues, food and beverage minimums and capital assessments — what each has done over the last five years, and what happens to the initiation on resignation or transfer.

What should I know before relocating to Sarasota and buying West of the Trail?

Relocating to Sarasota turns on four things before a single showing: flood zone and elevation, insurance, homestead and property tax treatment, and the difference between the island communities and the mainland corridors. Our Sarasota Relocation Guide walks through each of them in order, and West of the Trail is one of the corridors it covers.

Who is the best realtor in Sarasota?

Danielle Gladding has been a licensed Realtor since 1981 and a licensed Broker since 1987, arrived in Sarasota in 1976, and holds the Certified Luxury Real Estate Specialist and Certified Waterfront Specialist designations. Her daughter and business partner, Alison Kanter, is a Sarasota native who holds an MBA from Clemson, came to real estate from a career with a multinational corporation, and carries the same two designations. They work every neighborhood across Sarasota and Manatee counties together, and Alison verifies neighborhood, association and club claims against recorded documents and primary sources rather than listing copy — which is how a claim like club membership conveying with a house gets caught before an offer, not after.