West Villages Improvement District: Northport Commission to hear update on Warm Mineral Springs Master Plan

Herald Tribune, August 31, 2018

NORTH PORT — The city of North Port is planning for the future of the 83-acre park surrounding Warm Mineral Springs.

While public input will be taken through meetings tentatively scheduled for Sept. 18-20, the North Port City Commission will be updated at a Sept. 6 special meeting on the project, as well as review a draft of the proposal to nominate the structures for the National Register of Historic Places at the park that were first put in place for the 1959 Florida Quadricentennial.

The structures have deteriorated from lack of maintenance. The cost to renovate or restore them has been estimated anywhere from $2.4 million to $2.9 million.

The city put the structures on its first historic register in March 2017, and has been working with the state historic preservation office to have them included on the national register.

The springs themselves, the site’s centerpiece, were listed on the state register in 1977.

The structures, designed by architect Jack West, a member of the Sarasota School of Architecture, were built in the late 1950s as part of a 21.6-acre “springs activity center” for the quadricentennial.

Two of the structures, a sales building and restaurant and spa building, are joined by a covered walkway, or pergola, and are considered by some as one site.

At 10,345 square feet and 225 feet long, it approximates the depth of the hourglass-shaped springs.

City officials have gone back and forth over the best way to handle renovation and restoration of that part of the complex.

The third building, a cyclorama, was considered by the City Commission to be the obvious jewel of the site, when the local historic register was created.

The Warm Mineral Springs cyclorama is one of an estimated 30 left in the world and only three in the United States. Two of those, in Atlanta and Gettysburg, depict Civil War battles.

The North Port cyclorama tells the story of Juan Ponce de Leon’s exploration of Florida, in search of the Fountain of Youth.

The buildings operated as a tourist attraction from March 1960 to 2000, before being temporarily closed.

The springs reopened for swimming in 2014.

All that is detailed in the draft application to the National Register of Historic Places.

The city has owned the springs since September 2014, when it purchased Sarasota County’s interest in the facilities. It pays $48,280 a month to operate the park and receives all revenue from admission sales.

An archaeological background report, prepared by Tampa-based Janus Research for the Sept. 6 meeting, notes two sites. The springs itself, which is hourglass-shaped and has a burial site located 42 feet below the surface, on a ledge, is the main one.

A second site, a sandy ridge about 650 feet south of the springs, appears to be a place that stone tool maintenance occurred — based on the size and number of small stone flakes uncovered in shovel tests.

The city hopes to develop the adjacent 60-plus acres for other recreational use through the master plan.

Interested?

• The North Port City Commission will receive an update on the Warm Mineral Springs master plan process at a special meeting which starts at 1 p.m., Sept. 6, in commission chambers at North Port City Hall, 4970 City Hall Blvd. For more information on the park, visit cityofnorthport.com/visitors/visit-north-port/warm-mineral-springs-park.

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate

REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964