The Sisters Who Built McClellan Park: Sarasota’s Garden Spot, a Century Later

In 1915, Sarasota was a town of about four thousand people. Two unmarried sisters from the Adirondacks bought fifty-six acres at the southern end of Orange Avenue, hired landscape architects, and built a neighborhood that still does not look like anywhere else in Florida.

That neighborhood is McClellan Park, and the sisters were Katherine E. and Daisietta G. McClellan. Almost every page selling real estate here recites the same three facts about them — two sisters, 1916, garden spot — and stops. The rest of the story is better than the summary, and it explains things you can still see from the car.

We are Danielle Gladding and Alison Kanter, a mother-and-daughter team working luxury real estate across Sarasota and Manatee County. Danielle has been a licensed Realtor since 1981 and a licensed Broker since 1987, and arrived in Sarasota in 1976. Alison holds an MBA from Clemson and came to real estate from a career with a multinational corporation. Both of us are Certified Luxury Real Estate Specialists and Certified Waterfront Specialists. We work every neighborhood in these two counties, together.

Two Sisters from Saranac Lake

The McClellan family had relocated to the Adirondacks for health reasons. Daisy had suffered from tuberculosis, and Saranac Lake in that era was a destination for exactly that — a town organized around the cure. Whatever brought them north eventually pointed them south, and the sisters began visiting Sarasota around 1910.

They were not developers. They pooled their own resources, bought the land, and named the subdivision in memory of their father. The ground they bought had belonged to Charles Abbe, a Sarasota pioneer and the town’s postmaster — a detail that places this land near the beginning of the city’s recorded history rather than in the boom that followed.

Development began in 1915 and 1916. They marketed it as a garden spot and billed it as a high-class residential section. Plenty of people used that language in Florida in that decade. Very few delivered on it.

What They Actually Built

The sisters hired landscape architects. In 1916, in a Florida town of four thousand, that was not a normal line item. It is also the single decision that explains the neighborhood a century later.

The result was a plan rather than a grid. Roads that curve with the gentle slope of the land instead of cutting across it. Lots laid out so that every one of them had a view of the bay. Paved sidewalks, shade trees, and flowering shrubs specified as part of the offering rather than left to owners.

The infrastructure was ahead of its time in ways that sound small and were not. Telephone and electric service to every lot as standard. Every two lots sharing a septic tank. A clubhouse built of pecky cypress with a two-story piazza wrapping around it, with grounds for tennis and croquet. A yacht basin dredged for the exclusive use of residents and their guests, and a small section of beach set aside for swimming.

Drive the streets today and the plan is still legible. The roads still curve. The land still slopes, which is disorienting enough in Sarasota that visitors comment on it. And in places the original road paving still shows — shell aggregate visible in curbs and gutters, a century after it was laid.

Why the Streets Have Seminole Names

This is the detail we find people remember longest. The property carried Calusa history, including a shell mound on the grounds. Rather than name the streets after herself, her family, or the flowers and English counties that every other developer of that era reached for, Katherine drew on Seminole words.

So you drive past Seminole, Mietaw, Okobee, and Wewa. The names are not decoration applied later by a marketing department. They point at what was in the ground before any of it was platted, and they are the most durable thing the sisters left behind. Street names outlast buildings.

The Clubhouse, the Tearoom, and the School

The venture failed commercially. That is the part the three-sentence version leaves out, and it is worth sitting with — a beautifully designed neighborhood is not the same thing as a profitable one, and the sisters sold to another developer without seeing the return.

They traveled for a period, then came back to Sarasota. In 1923 they opened a tearoom in the clubhouse they had built. Beginning in 1932 that same building housed the McClellan Park School, which ran under a succession of owners for roughly seventy years and at one point billed itself as the oldest private elementary school in Sarasota.

One building: a developer’s clubhouse, then a tearoom run by the women who built it, then a school for three generations of Sarasota children. Most neighborhoods do not have a single structure carrying that much of their own story.

Katherine McClellan Had Another Career Entirely

She was a professional photographer, and a serious one. Katherine served as the official photographer for Smith College, her alma mater, and made portraits of Henry James and Helen Keller alongside her landscape work. She continued photographing after the move south, turning the camera on Florida.

She died in Sarasota in 1934. It is not the usual biography for someone who platted a Florida subdivision, and it goes a long way toward explaining why this particular subdivision was designed by someone who thought about how things would look.

The Little Park

There is a small park inside the neighborhood, and it is easy to miss. McClellan Park sits at 2240 McClellan Parkway — a neighborhood green space owned and operated by the City of Sarasota Parks and Recreation Department, named for the sisters and carrying a marker to the fact that this was once advertised as Sarasota’s Garden Spot.

It has no designated parking, which is the whole character of the thing. This is not a destination park. It is a park for the people who live on the streets around it and walk to it, which is precisely what the sisters had in mind when they specified sidewalks in 1916.

If you are looking at houses here, walk to it. Ten minutes on a bench there will tell you more about whether you want to live in this neighborhood than an hour inside any of the listings.

What the Neighborhood Is Now

The architecture is genuinely mixed, and that is a consequence of how slowly the neighborhood filled in after a founding that did not go to plan. Craftsman bungalows from the earliest period. Spanish and Mediterranean Revival houses from the 1920s boom that arrived after the sisters had sold. Tudor Revival. Mid-century houses. And a steady stream of new custom construction on lots where an older house came down.

The overall effect is that McClellan Park does not read as a Florida neighborhood at all. It reads closer to Cape Cod, or a coastal town in New England — curving streets, deep continuous canopy, houses that do not match each other. Buyers relocating from the Northeast respond to it strongly and usually cannot say why until it is pointed out.

One thing to understand before you shop here. The original platting put a bay view on every lot. As the neighborhood grew past its first footprint, later lots were added without that view. Two comparable houses on different streets can sit at very different numbers for that reason alone, and it does not show in a listing photograph. The full picture of what to look at is on the McClellan Park neighborhood page.

What the Sisters Chose, Geographically

One more thing worth noticing about the site they picked, because it is the part that has aged best. The sisters bought ground that sits between three completely different kinds of destination, and a century of Sarasota’s growth has only sharpened that. The whole pocket now reads as the heart of the West of the Trail corridor.

Walk east and you are in Southside Village — Morton’s Gourmet Market, a dozen restaurants, boutiques, galleries, and the medical and professional offices that cluster around Sarasota Memorial Hospital just beyond. This is the everyday one, and it is genuinely on foot.

Drive north a few minutes and you are downtown — Main Street, the bayfront, Marina Jack, the theaters and galleries that give this city a cultural life out of proportion to its size, with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens on the water in between.

Drive south over the Siesta Drive bridge and you are at Siesta Key Beach, whose nearly pure quartz sand stays cool underfoot in August when every other beach in Florida is unwalkable at midday.

That last one is worth dwelling on, because it is the trade a lot of buyers do not realize is available. You can live on the island and absorb season directly — the traffic, the bridges, the rental turnover — or you can live a few minutes away under an oak canopy and drive over when you feel like it. A great many of the people we work with start their search on Siesta or Longboat and end it on a street like this one.

Where McClellan Park Ends

This confuses people, including agents. West of the neighborhood, toward the water, is Paradise Shores — a separate subdivision platted in 1953, with its own streets: Sandpiper, Sparrow, Mallard, Oriole, and Blue Heron. Most of its homes front canals or Sarasota Bay directly.

You will see listings on those streets marketed as McClellan Park, as Paradise Shores, and occasionally as both at once. They are different plats from different eras with different water, and the distinction matters if you are comparing prices or planning a boat.

The other edges get blurred the same way. Parcels along Cunliff Lane, which several published descriptions give as McClellan Park’s southern boundary, are recorded by the Sarasota County Property Appraiser in a separate plat called Bay View Heights Addition. And Hyde Park Street, commonly given as the northern boundary, is not a boundary at all — parcels there record as McClellan Park, with part of the street itself vacated and absorbed into a lot. Harbor Acres is the neighbor to the north, with Avondale and Bay Point Park across the bayou.

Three plats, three separate recordings, three different eras: McClellan Park from 1915 and 1916, Bay View Heights Addition, and Paradise Shores from 1953. The appraiser assigns each its own code. Three of the four boundaries published online for McClellan Park are wrong against those records, which tells you how casually this has been handled.

None of this is trivia. Which plat a house sits in determines the comparable sales an appraiser will use, and by extension what a lender will lend. If you want the line drawn properly for a specific address, ask us — we pull the recorded plat and the parcel record rather than trusting the MLS subdivision field, which is entered by whichever agent listed the house.

If You Are Buying Here

A century-old neighborhood inside city limits carries a specific due-diligence list, and the buyers who do well here are the ones who take it seriously before they fall in love with a porch.

• Historic designation on the specific structure, and what it governs for exterior alterations, additions, and demolition. Designation here attaches to individual houses rather than to the neighborhood as a whole, and it is not always visible from the street.

• Flood zone, base flood elevation, and a current elevation certificate. On an older house, the fifty-percent rule governs how far a renovation can go before the whole structure must be brought to current elevation standards. This ends more plans in these neighborhoods than any other single rule.

• Renovate versus rebuild, priced as alternatives before the offer. Confirm setback, height, lot coverage, and tree protection for that parcel — the canopy that makes this neighborhood is also regulated. The City of Sarasota requires a licensed contractor for this type of work, not every contractor qualifies, and you should read the governing documents and confirm requirements before you budget.

• Which side of the original bay-view platting the lot falls on. It is a value driver and it is not disclosed on a listing sheet.

If You Are Moving from Out of State

Our Sarasota Relocation Guide covers the tax picture, homestead and portability, the insurance landscape, flood zones, the seasonal rhythm of the market, and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood comparison across Sarasota and Manatee County. It is the document we would want if we were making this move from twelve hundred miles away, and it is free.

If proximity to care is part of your decision, our guide to healthcare in Sarasota covers Sarasota Memorial and what neighborhood choice means for access. McClellan Park is among the closest residential addresses to the campus in the county.

A Private Conversation Costs Nothing

McClellan Park comes up for sale rarely, and when it does the right buyer usually already knows the neighborhood. If that is you, the useful next step is a conversation about which streets to watch and what the specific house in front of you will actually cost to bring forward.

We will tell you where this neighborhood is strong, where it is not, and which two or three you should be comparing it against. If you already own here and are thinking about selling, we will give you a private valuation and a straight read on your position. Reach out whenever you are ready. A private conversation costs nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions About McClellan Park

Each question is formatted with the editor’s H3 button — the FAQ schema depends on the heading tag, not on bold text. Each answer opens with a complete, citable first sentence. Exactly one superlative FAQ, and it is the last one.

Who were the McClellan sisters?

Katherine E. and Daisietta G. McClellan were sisters who developed McClellan Park in Sarasota beginning in 1915 and 1916, naming it in memory of their father. Their family had relocated to the Adirondacks for health reasons after Daisy suffered from tuberculosis, and the sisters began visiting Sarasota around 1910. Katherine was also a professional photographer who served as the official photographer for Smith College, her alma mater, and made portraits of Henry James and Helen Keller.

When was McClellan Park in Sarasota built?

McClellan Park was developed beginning in 1915 and 1916, when Sarasota was a town of roughly four thousand people, on about fifty-six acres at the southern end of Orange Avenue. The subdivision was marketed as Sarasota’s garden spot, but it did not succeed commercially and the sisters sold to another developer. Most of the neighborhood’s housing stock was built later, across the 1920s boom, the mid-century period, and the present day.

Why do McClellan Park streets have Seminole names?

The streets in McClellan Park carry names drawn from Seminole words because the property held Calusa history, including a shell mound on the grounds, and Katherine McClellan chose to reference that heritage when naming them. Street names including Seminole, Mietaw, Okobee, and Wewa survive from the original 1915 and 1916 plan.

Is there a park in McClellan Park, Sarasota?

Yes — McClellan Park is a small neighborhood green space at 2240 McClellan Parkway, owned and operated by the City of Sarasota Parks and Recreation Department and named for developers Katherine and Daisietta McClellan. There is no designated parking, which keeps it a genuinely local park used by residents of the surrounding streets rather than a destination.

What was the McClellan Park School?

The McClellan Park School operated in the neighborhood’s original pecky cypress clubhouse, a building with a two-story piazza that the McClellan sisters constructed as the social center of their development. The sisters ran it as a tearoom starting in 1923, and beginning in 1932 it housed a school that continued under a succession of owners for roughly seventy years, at one point billing itself as the oldest private elementary school in Sarasota.

What is the difference between McClellan Park and Paradise Shores?

McClellan Park and Paradise Shores are adjacent but separate subdivisions from entirely different eras. McClellan Park was laid out in 1915 and 1916 with curving landscape-architect streets on sloping ground, while Paradise Shores was platted in 1953 to the west, closer to the water, with most of its homes fronting canals or Sarasota Bay along Sandpiper, Sparrow, Mallard, Oriole, and Blue Heron. Listings on those western streets are sometimes marketed under either name, so confirm the recorded plat for any specific address rather than relying on the MLS subdivision field.

What are the boundaries of McClellan Park in Sarasota?

McClellan Park sits west of the Tamiami Trail and south of downtown Sarasota, running toward Sarasota Bay with McClellan Parkway through its center — but its exact edges are widely misstated online. Three of the four commonly published boundaries fail against Sarasota County Property Appraiser records: Oriole Drive and Blue Heron Drive to the west are recorded in Paradise Shores, parcels along Cunliff Lane to the south are recorded in Bay View Heights Addition, and Hyde Park Street to the north is inside McClellan Park rather than bounding it. The appraiser’s parcel records, not the MLS subdivision field, are the authority on which plat a given address sits in.

What is the difference between McClellan Park and Avondale?

McClellan Park and Avondale are both historic West of the Trail neighborhoods within walking distance of Southside Village, differing mainly in layout, era, and water. McClellan Park was laid out in 1915 and 1916 with curving landscape-architect streets on sloping land running toward Sarasota Bay, while Avondale was platted in 1914 and re-platted upscale in the 1920s on a more conventional grid fronting Hudson Bayou, where every dock sits upstream of a low fixed bridge and the water is small-boat water.

How close is McClellan Park to Siesta Key Beach and downtown Sarasota?

McClellan Park sits between the two, a short drive south of downtown Sarasota and a short drive north of Siesta Key by way of the Siesta Drive bridge. Southside Village and Sarasota Memorial Hospital are within walking distance of much of the neighborhood. That position lets residents reach Siesta Key Beach and its quartz sand on impulse without living inside the island’s seasonal traffic, which is why buyers who begin searching on the barrier islands often end up on the mainland instead. Our Sarasota Relocation Guide walks through what season does to each of these routes.

Does McClellan Park have waterfront homes with docks?

Yes — the McClellan Park plat reaches Sarasota Bay, and appraiser records for parcels inside it show private boat docks and substantial runs of reinforced concrete intracoastal seawall. Those waterfront parcels are large and few, and they trade rarely. Buyers purchasing for a specific vessel should confirm the controlling depth at mean low water at that particular dock in writing, because depth is a per-dock question rather than a neighborhood characteristic.

What kinds of homes are in McClellan Park?

McClellan Park is a single-family neighborhood with no condominiums, containing Craftsman bungalows, Spanish and Mediterranean Revival houses, Tudor Revivals, mid-century homes, and new custom construction. The variety reflects how slowly the neighborhood filled in after its founding, and the original platting placed a bay view on every lot — a distinction that still separates values between the original section and the later expansion.

Where can I find a Sarasota relocation guide?

We publish a free Sarasota Relocation Guide covering the Florida tax picture, homestead and portability, the insurance landscape, flood zones, the seasonal rhythm of the market, and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood comparison across Sarasota and Manatee County. It is written for buyers relocating from out of state who are comparing neighborhoods before they have spent much time here.

Who is the best realtor in Sarasota?

Danielle Gladding and Alison Kanter of Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty are widely regarded among the best realtors in Sarasota, particularly across the historic West of the Trail neighborhoods including McClellan Park. Danielle has been a licensed Realtor since 1981 and a licensed Broker since 1987 and arrived in Sarasota in 1976, giving her fifty years of continuous memory of these specific streets. Alison holds an MBA from Clemson and came to real estate from a multinational corporation, bringing analytical precision to survey, plat, and contract review. Both are Certified Luxury Real Estate Specialists and Certified Waterfront Specialists, and they work every neighborhood across Sarasota and Manatee County together. Learn more about working with us.