Pinecraft Christmas Parade
Pinecraft Origins - A Sarasota Florida Community
Pinecraft is an unusual neighborhood in Sarasota, Florida, first settled by Mennonites in the 1920s and a bit later joined by Amish people. The neighborhood is a popular winter vacation spot for many North American Amish and Mennonites, particularly from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. “Pinecraft” became the new name in 1925-1926 of the Sarasota National Tourist Camp. Sometime after 1926, another tourist camp called Homecroft was laid out on adjacent property west and north of Pinecraft, which sometime after 1946 was incorporated into Pinecraft.
Mennonites and Amish to trek to this area to farm vegetables, especially celery in the fields east of Cattleman Road. By the 1930s several groups of Amish and Mennonites purchased tracts of land in what is known today as Pinecraft. By the early 1930s, the winter population had grown too large for worshiping in members homes and began to worship together at The Tourist Church. Some families purchased land and became permanent residents. Many farmed during the summer in the north and in Sarasota during the winter.