But there’s much more to this Sarasota neighborhood than that. It’s a paragon of walkable urban planning, with quiet streets that empty onto thoroughfares, sidewalks on both sides of the street, curbs, and mature trees offering ample shade.
To go with that, the housing stock is out of “Leave It to Beaver” — if Wally and the Beav had spent summers with the grandparents in Florida. The mix of proud, elegant and mostly unpretentious houses includes Spanish-style homes from the 1920s, Colonials and ranches from the postwar boom, and even a few grand new mansions.
Avondale, west of Tamiami Trail at Hudson Bayou, even has a star home — a Thomas Reed Martin-designed, walled estate at 1903 Lincoln Drive that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Nothing says “traditional neighborhood” like that. It had been on the market at $3.95 million, but was recently withdrawn, said Sheryl Viera of Signature Sotheby’s International Realty, which had the listing.
Avondale pre-dates the Florida land boom of the 1920s. A trio that included future mayor A.B. Edwards developed Avondale Heights in 1915, but it was ahead of its time and the lots did not sell. They were purchased by developers Irving Bacheller, Edward Brewer and Fred Woolley in 1923, and the following year they replatted the area as just Avondale, perhaps noticing that it had no “heights.” According to the new historical marker on Brewer Court, Bacheller and his associates widened the streets and enlarged the lots to make the neighborhood more upscale.
Lots sold well, except the larger ones on the bayou. The developers tried to solve the problem by hiring Martin in 1926 to design a model at 1903 Lincoln. But the boom had already gone bust, and it sat unsold until 1929.
Plenty of lots remained vacant until the postwar boom, when ranch houses took their place alongside the boomers. Some of those have been remodeled, and others torn down, replaced by mini-mansions. One such house sits on a triangular lot at the junction of Lincoln Drive and Alta Vista Street. Designed by Kurt Lucas, the 5,400-square-foot home is listed at $1,499,000 through Mike Hays of Michael Saunders Co. It has been on the market for two years, first at $2.3 million.
“The woodworking is just spectacular, unbelievably custom,” said Hays. “There is no pool, but there is room for one.”
Hays said Avondale’s appeal lies in its “proximity to just about everything in town, including the beaches, Marina Jack, downtown, the schools.
“It’s a historical, family neighborhood. In this downturn, it is one of the ones that have lost the least amount of value because it is so established. The neighborhood is eclectic. A lot of people steer away from the cookie-cutter neighborhoods and want something unique and fun.”
“It is an older neighborhood, but well-kept, with a huge variety of architecture,” said Vickie Lonborg of Coldwell Banker. She has a two-story, $585,000 listing at 1903 Irving St.
She said prices “maybe, might be … a little overpriced. It is so hard to judge now.”