User:Witherpshins

Pinecraft is a small neighborhood community of approximately 3,000 Amish and Mennonites. It is situated near the intersection of Bahia Vista Avenue and Beneva Road in Sarasota, Florida, USA. It serves as a winter vacation spot for many Amish and Mennonites from Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Geography

Officially Pinecraft lies just outside the eastern boundary of the City of Sarasota, though its residents use a Sarasota postal address. It is bounded on the north and west by the Phillipi River, on the south by a line parallel with Seaview Street that extends to Beneva Road; the boundary jogs north at Beneva Road, east at a stream that runs under Beneva Road, north again at Glendale Street, east again at Bahia Vista Street, then runs north to the Phillipi River along a set of railroad tracks. At its widest axes it is about 3/4 mile west-to-east and about 1/2 mile north-to-south.

History

The name "Pinecraft" became the new name in 1925 or 1926 of what had been the Sarasota National Tourist Camp, consisting at the time of 466 campsites, most of them 40 feet by 40 feet in size, with a small public park at the present site of Pinecraft Park, a Community House and a water tank. At that time Pinecraft was about 1/2 square mile in size, bounded on the north by Bahia Vista Street (at the time Bay Vista Street), on the west by the Phillipi River, on the south by Second Avenue South (roughly parallel with the current Schrock Street), and on the east by Yoder Street (at the time Eleventh Street, later Lee Drive).
Sometime after 1926 another tourist camp called Homecroft was laid out on adjacent property west and north of Pinecraft, and sometime after 1946 was incorporated into Pinecraft. Homecroft, about 1/4 mile by 1/2 mile in size, was bounded by Hacienda Street on the north, Yoder Street (then Lee Drive) on the west, Schrock Street (then Acacia Street) on the south, and Beneva Road (then Beneva Drive) on the east. The transition from camps to residential areas occurred gradually, with major housing construction beginning in the early 1940s, continuing briskly through the 1940s and into the 1950s. The roads were paved around 1949-1950. In 1949 single lots at Pinecraft sold for $200, corner lots for $225.

Transportation from the North

Amish from Indiana and Ohio travel to Pinecraft on buses of the Pioneer Trails company of Millersburg Ohio, which has "Florida Line Runs" all months except August, and up to 3 times a week from February through April. From Pennsylvania many Amish commute on buses of Elite Coach of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, whose "Florida Line Run" has twice-weekly journeys January through March from PA cities.

The Tourist Church

The Tourist Church, which is used by both Mennonites and Amish in separate services, has been a much-used landmark from the time it was purchased by Mennonites in 1946 for $7,500 (it had been a bakery until then), and had an attendance at the first Sunday services of 531. Starting in 1947 it was also used as a school for children vacationing in Florida, though by 1949 or 1950 the county built a school for Pinecraft children at the corner of Beneva Road and Bahia Vista Street.