Architecture Sarasota is calling this year's MOD Weekend "100 Years of Sarasota School." It runs three days, November 13 through 15, and tickets range from $25 for a walking tour to $575 for a VIP pass. The flagship tour shows off landmark residences and civic buildings across town. Southgate has its own example at 3145 Southgate Circle, a hall and pool by Victor Lundy that have served the same neighborhood purpose since the 1950s.
The citywide celebration and the building on Southgate Circle run on very different terms. The centennial events are priced as one-time visits. Lundy's Southgate hall is held up by annual memberships, pool keys, and donations from the people who live around it. In the month Sarasota marks a century of this architecture, Southgate's own piece of it is a working community building, and it lasts only as long as the neighborhood keeps using it.
The citywide celebration runs on ticket tiers
Here is the MOD Weekend program, as listed by Architecture Sarasota:
| Date | Event | Location | Price: Member / Not-Yet-Member / Young Modern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Nov. 13, 5:30 p.m. | Opening Party, with previews of the new exhibitions 100 Years of Sarasota School and Living Legacy ft. Halflants + Pichette | The Pavilion | $100 / $150 / $50 |
| Sat., Nov. 14, 8:30 a.m. | Sarasota Design Conference plus self-guided "Eras Tour" | St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2256 Bahia Vista St. | $100 / $125 / $50 |
| Sat., Nov. 14, 8:30 a.m. | Sarasota Design Conference plus guided shuttle tour | St. Paul Lutheran Church | $200 / $250 |
| Sun., Nov. 15, 10 a.m. | Boat Tour | LeBarge, 2 Marina Plaza | $130 / $160 |
| Sun., Nov. 15, 1 p.m. | Greenbriar Neighborhood Homes and Walking Tour | Greenbriar Street | $25 / $35 |
Weekend passes with the self-guided tour cost $325 for members, $450 for not-yet-members and $225 for Young Moderns. The VIP pass with the guided shuttle is $425 for members and $575 for not-yet-members. Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner gives the keynote.
Southgate residents have a nearby connection on Saturday. The conference is held at St. Paul Lutheran Church on Bahia Vista Street, which is itself a Lundy design. The Eras Tour is a self-driving, map-based route through Sarasota School residences and civic buildings. The South Gate Community Center does not appear among the event locations Architecture Sarasota lists for the weekend.
The Southgate hall has lasted as a place where people swim, picnic, and hold weddings, and it has never been run as an exhibit.
A Lundy hall that came with the neighborhood
South Gate broke ground in 1955 on orange groves planted by Bertha Palmer and managed by Minute Maid, according to the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation. In January 1956, developers Rollad King and Frank Smith called a meeting to set up a community association. Lundy was then hired to design the hall, which sits on a 5-acre parcel next to the pool and Phillippi Creek.
The same preservation group lists both the hall and the pool as locally designated historic structures on the County Register. It describes the pool as the oldest continually run public pool in Sarasota. The association's homepage says the pool has been "our community's go-to spot for 68 years."
That history explains the building's design. Lundy wasn't designing a monument for out-of-town visitors. He was designing the social center of a brand-new subdivision, and the Alliance says it still works that way. It describes the center as a place residents love for mid-summer splashing, dog walking, picnics and weddings, and as the much-needed social hub of the neighborhood.
A year of membership costs less than the shuttle tour
The cheapest way into this landmark is the pool, and you don't have to live in South Gate to use it. The South Gate Community Association says members and non-members are both eligible. The steps the association lists:
- Stop by the office for a copy of the pool rules.
- Pick up a key.
- Sign the release.
The contact page lists weekday office hours but also says visits are by appointment only, so call before you go. The homepage notes that the pool has ongoing maintenance, and the association doesn't publish swim hours. A phone call will also tell you whether the water is open that week. Pool parties need a reservation and a release.
Annual membership is $200, which is less than a not-yet-member's ticket to the shuttle tour. The association lists member events including Food Truck Fridays, holiday parties, Fourth of July festivities, a Spring Splash Party, and its own Sarasota MOD Week event. The association's calendar for October 2026 through mid-January 2027 doesn't yet give dates for those. One recurring class is on it now, Tai Chi on Tuesdays from 8:45 to 10 a.m. and Thursdays from 8:45 to 10:45 a.m. The association also lists yoga, bridge and self-improvement groups at the center. Some may carry a donation or extra fee.
Paying for a landmark that people still use
The association says the $200 membership directly supports historic preservation, specifically the care of "our iconic Victor Lundy-designed property, grounds and swimming pool." Its homepage also asks for donations toward pool improvements.
The building has already been through a close call. In 2021, the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation put the South Gate center on its "Six to Save" list. It reported then that a lack of steady maintenance funding had led the association to put the hall up for sale and look into a county purchase. The association's current site describes it as the owner of the historic Lundy center and is still raising money to keep the pool running.
Another Lundy building across town shows how quickly that can turn. Alta Vista's 1957 "Butterfly Wing" building, with its butterfly roof, was on a demolition list in a plan approved in November 2025. The local Alta Vista neighborhood site reports that the decision was reversed as of April 3, 2026, and the building is now expected to be kept for non-instructional use. That page says the building appeared in planning documents only as "Building #2," without being identified as Lundy's work.
The Southgate hall's membership page names its architect, and the money it raises goes toward keeping the building in use.
The same stretch of Tamiami Trail also has a 1916 estate on Wednesdays
On Wednesday mornings, a short drive down U.S. 41 from Southgate Circle takes you to a much older building. The 17th season of the Phillippi Farmhouse Market opened Wednesday, October 21, at Phillippi Estate Park, 5500 S. Tamiami Trail. Your Observer reported about 45 vendors selling produce, prepared foods and artisanal goods, plus food trucks and live music, with free admission. Sarasota County Parks lists the market every Wednesday from October through April, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The county took over running it after the Whitehouses retired in 2024.
Free docent-led tours run on market days, at 10 a.m. for the Edson Keith Mansion and 11 a.m. for the Keith Farmhouse. Both date to 1916. Chicago hat-making executive Edson Keith Jr. built the mansion in the Italian Renaissance style. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The farmhouse was the first building on the Keith estate and has been extensively restored. The park also has a canoe and kayak launch and both paved and unpaved trails.
That gives Southgate two eras of preserved architecture along one corridor. The Keith estate is the older one, and it's maintained as a public park. Lundy's hall, built 40 years later, is still a working community building that depends on the people who use it. The market's free docent tours start at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays, and MOD Weekend opens Friday, November 13.
At Schemmel Milland, we pay close attention to the details that make a neighborhood like Southgate special, starting with the Lundy hall on Southgate Circle. If MOD Weekend has you curious about Sarasota School homes in the neighborhood around it, we'd love to show you.
