Friday, January 20, 2006

Sarasots Qts. #1


Part of the seat wagons have been set up here for this staged shot. I don't know what the occasion might be but it gives an idea what the seating capacity would look like when all 28 wagons were erected.

Posted by Buckles at 1/20/2006 06:32:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where in Sarasota were the Winters Quarters located? What's there now?

20 January, 2006 08:02
Buckles said...

As opposed to what you might think I'm not familiar with Sarasota at all. I can drive to John Herriott's house, the Showfolks Club and St. Armands Circle and that's about it. We live about 30 miles away.
I was at the quarters the winter of 1955-56 and I recall it as being on Beneva Ave. Northeast of town. The show having recently closed under canvas no longer had a cook house so you had to fend for yourself. There was a guy named Joe Bananas that ran a grease joint just outside the front gate but on more than one occasion Dave Mullaney and I would hoof it down town for supper, so it couldn't have been too far.
On one such occasion as we walked past the Fairgrounds we were surprised to see that the Fair was setting up and the Ringling Show had provided an old menagerie tent as an exhibit area. I noticed some strange, tattered material hanging from the top of each quarter pole. Dave explained that one time they had a jungle motif in the menagerie and the quarter poles were painted like palm trees and the debris was remnants of the palm leaves that had been sewn to the canvas.

20 January, 2006 09:41
Buckles said...

No sooner than I had posted the last message I received a phone call from a gentleman at an Architectual Co. asking for details on the old Ringling Quarters. Something about a blueprint to duplicate the layout for some reason.
He informed me that some of the horse stables still remain. The only distinguishing feature I could recall was that the main building that housed the menagerie animals and the sail loft above had an off center peak since it had originally been the grandstand for the Fairgrounds racetrack.
Could this possibly be an adjunct for the Tibbals Museum?

20 January, 2006 10:28

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