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Developers once had more in mind than just lemons, mullet and sunshine for Sarasota County’s southernmost community.

Englewood is known for its quaint old Florida character and beautiful views of Lemon Bay, but would you believe that at one time it was slated to be the home for a national university?

That’s right, about a century ago our own Englewood was selected as the site for a brand-new university, and not a small one. The working title for this new center for higher learning was National Memorial University, intended as a tribute to the memory of the American soldiers who gave their lives during World War I, which had been over for less than a decade at the time.

But why Englewood? And what became of this grand scheme?

A bit of context first

Englewood was first platted out in 1896 by a trio of brothers from the Nichols family of the Englewood suburb of Chicago. They had big plans for this new namesake of their former home, but Englewood, Fla. remained relatively small into the early years of the 20th century.

Florida’s land boom reaches Englewood

By the mid-1920s, however, the real estate market was boiling hot all over Florida. A prosperous economy, easy credit, improved transportation and creative advertising combined to fuel a boom in development. Land speculation was rampant, with locals and outsiders alike jockeying for control of the best parcels of land. Entire new communities were carved out of the wilderness during this era—Venice, El Jobean and Vamo among them. Many more were dreamed up on paper, even if they didn’t come to fruition.

Englewood saw a respectable piece of this action. By 1925, it was home to the first state bank in Sarasota County chartered outside the city of Sarasota. The Tamiami Trail ran right through town at the time, following what we now know as Old Englewood Road before turning east onto Dearborn Street and looping back north along River Road before crossing the Myakka River near Warm Mineral Springs. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad, whose tracks terminated in Venice at the time, was strongly considering an extension through Englewood that would link up with their tracks in Placida. Developers announced plans for all sorts of amenities, a golf course and country club, a 100-room hotel, a beach casino on Manasota Key (then called Peninsular Key) and thousands of new homes. Anticipating a boom, the state legislature incorporated Englewood as a city in 1925.

The vision for a national university

All this enthusiasm for Englewood’s future attracted the attention of Major Ellsworth Wilson, secretary and treasurer of the National Memorial University Association. Wilson was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I who for five years had been raising funds and building momentum behind the idea of establishing one or more universities to honor the soldiers who had died in the recent world war. In addition to being a permanent memorial to these fallen heroes, the university (or universities) would also extend special scholarships to their family members.

Wilson’s team focused on fundraising first, without naming a specific location for the planned university. They raised funds by partnering with the American Legion and naming committee members in counties across the country to raise a certain amount for each person who had served in the recent war. Their goal was to raise $5 million, a hefty sum in those days.

Events accelerated in the winter of 1924-1925, when Major Wilson spent a few months in St. Petersburg. He used some of his time establishing new camps of Spanish-American War veterans, but he seems also to have done some hunting for good real estate for his organization’s proposed university. In March, he announced the purchase of 540 acres at Lake Alfred in Polk County for the school, but for some reason the deal fell through. In September, Wilson announced that the newly incorporated town of Englewood would be the home of the National Memorial University. Developer Walter H. Green had donated a 50-acre site for the new institution, just north of the present site of Englewood Community Hospital. Plans were laid for classes to start in fall 1926.

Momentum—and collapse

This touched off a flurry of activity in Englewood. Newspapers across the nation publicized the town’s selection as the home for the national university. Major Wilson announced plans to invite President Calvin Coolidge to lay the cornerstone for the school’s administration building. Developers capitalized on the news, encouraging buyers to invest in properties near what would surely be a prominent institution of higher learning.

But the excitement faded about as fast as it appeared. The real estate boom that had gripped Florida for the past few years was beginning to sputter. Rampant land speculation had generated quick profits for a while, but stagnating prices and bad press about fraudulent schemes began to dampen buyers’ enthusiasm. Massive delays in receiving building materials made it harder for developers to make good on their promises to put their customers on the fast track to paradise. Towns like Englewood, whose bright futures had depended on the energy of the boom, suddenly began to descend into a local recession.

Major Ellsworth Wilson saw the writing on the wall and took quiet action to back away from Englewood as the site for the National Memorial University. In February 1926, he named Savannah, Georgia as the school’s new home. George Fryhofer, a developer who had played an outsized role in the Florida boom, had contracted with Wilson’s association, guaranteeing 200 acres and a $3 million fund for the university and a town to serve it.

As luck would have it, the Savannah site eventually fell through as well. In fact, the National Memorial University never came to fruition, at least not in the form its backers had imagined. By 1930, with the nation facing a depression and funds for capital projects like new universities out of reach, Major Wilson and his associates pivoted toward providing scholarships for the families of veterans.

Aftermath and legacy

In Englewood, the collapse of the Florida real estate boom prompted locals to pare down their big plans for growth. By 1929, the situation had turned dire enough for the state legislature to dissolve the town’s corporate charter in order to provide tax and debt relief to the citizens. The Englewood State Bank failed the following year, leaving its depositors in a lurch. It was later determined that the cashier, Abner Silkey, had run off with the bank’s money after its reserves dwindled to a few thousand dollars.

Depending on who you ask or how you define the success of a community, the collapse of the Florida boom might not have been such a bad thing. Englewood flourishes today as a quiet, charming coastal village with a fascinating history and a relaxed atmosphere. It may not be home to a national university, but it remains an ideal place to visit for a look at old Florida.