Ringling Estate - Sarasota, Florida

Back in the late 1800s, five young brothers watched as a circus was being unloaded from a steamboat onto the docks at McGregor, Iowa. Duly impressed, the brothers Ringling started their own backyard circus at their home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. By 1882, they were performing professionally, dancing and singing in a vaudeville-type act. Yes, this photo is of five different individuals. :) Two more brothers later joined the family business.

By 1884, the Ringlings were hiring other acts and hitting the road. Their show evolved into the Ringling Brothers Circus, one of the largest circuses at the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1906, they purchased their chief competitor, the Barnam and Bailey Circus, running the two shows in separate parts of the country. The circuses were combined in 1919 as the "Ringling Brothers Barnam & Bailey Circus" that we know today.

I thought it was interesting that the business of running the circus was divided up among the brothers. Alfred publicized the circus, Gus arranged advertising, placing posters of animals and bright colors several days before the circus came, Al picked the acts, Charles produced the show, Otto was the treasurer, and John supervised transportation. The Ringlings always split the money they earned equally.

Two of the brothers, John and Charles, were apparently taken with southwest Florida, and in the early 1900s purchased 67,000 acres of land on Sarasota Bay as an investment. John and his wife Mable built their dream home right on the Bay. The opulent mansion, a Mediterranean Revival 56-room palace, was named Cá d'Zan (meaning "House of John" in the old Venetian dialect). John and Mable moved in just before Christmas in 1926.

Today you can visit John and Mable's home as well as the spectacular John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Historic Asolo Theatre, the Ringling Circus Museum, and the incredible grounds, including Mable Ringling's Rose Garden. This is all contained on 66 acres and is well worth a day out of your travels if you are ever in Sarasota.

Cá d'Zan ...











Zalophus, John Ringling’s 125-foot yacht, would dock here ...



Mable's Rose Garden ...



The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. According to Wikipedia, the Ringling Museum, opened in 1927, is "designated as the official state art museum for Florida. The institution offers twenty-one galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities and Asian, American, and contemporary art. The museum's art collection currently consists of more than 10,000 objects that include a variety of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts from ancient through contemporary periods and from around the world. The most celebrated items in the museum are 16th, 17th, and 18th century European paintings, including a world-renowned collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings. Other artists represented include Marrioto di Cione, Cranach the Elder, Frans Hals, H. C. Van Vliet, Wright of Derby, Gainesborough, and Boudin."

It's an impressively beautiful place and houses works of art obtained by the Ringlings on their travels to Europe. Many of the pieces date from the 1500s. ...







Circus Museum ...




Along with intricately-carved horse-drawn circus trailers, human-launching cannons, and tiny clown cars, the museum houses the world's largest miniature circus, created over fifty years by Howard C. Tibbals. The scale is 3/4-inch to 1-foot. It's an amazing thing to behold ...







The Ringling enclave is so vast that it takes hours to give it it's due. In this regard, we were glad we had the RV with us. After several hours touring the house and circus museum, we went out to the RV and had ourselves a nice lunch. Then we sacked out for naps. In an hour or so, we were rested and good for another run. The afternoon was given over to the art museum.