SARASOTA - A wrecking ball is about to take down a piece of Sarasota's history. The old police department building is scheduled to be demolished.
Work was scheduled to begin Tuesday, but the bulldozers and earth movers haven't moved in yet. There are still some preparations to be made.
But it won't be long now. Work is expected to begin within a week.
The full demolition will take about 60 days. And no matter how much better the new police department headquarters is, it's sad to see a part of Sarasota's history wiped out.
When the Sarasota Police Department moved into the Ringling Boulevard building in 1959 it was quite different from what you see today. "It wasn't just the Police Department, it was also the municipal courthouse. So municipal hearings were heard in a portion of the building, and the police department was two stories of the building, with half of one story being dedicated to the jail," says Capt. Paul Sutton of the Sarasota Police Department.
The old jail was built to be escape-proof. "It was an old style jail. To my knowledge there was never a successful escape from the jail.”
That was due in part to the fact that steel bars went into the ceiling and the floor, so there were not a lot of chances for escape.
In 1973, two additional stories were added to the building.
When the jail shut down in 198, the city discovered it would cost too much to remove the bars. So in desperate need for space, the old jail cells were crammed with records and files.
Over time, the building began leaking badly and the floors often flooded. It also contained mold and asbestos.
Built during the cold war, it was designed to withstand bombs and missiles. "It looks like a fortress, and by contrast the new building is completely different. The new building is all glass. This one was nearly all brick. The new building is rated for a Category 5 hurricane, and everything in the building will continue to function during those storms. And this old building, even with its fortress appearance, didn't offer the same ability be used in a major storm."
But despite the new state of the art police station, when the old one goes down, we're losing a little part of our history. “There was a plaque that used to sit right inside this door; it was to Chief Wilson. This building was dedicated to Chief Wilson, who died in 1959 while working on a significant homicide case. He had a heart attack and died right after talking to the state attorney."
But Capt. Sutton says even though the building bearing his name goes down, Chief Wilson and the other officers who served so honorably here will not be forgotten.
An expansion of the courthouse next door is supposed to be built on the spot once the old building goes down. But right now, with the economy, that plan's on hold. So the lot will probably be vacant for a while.
