Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 55,698 at the 2020 census. It is a principal city in the Sarasota metropolitan area.
Downtown Bradenton is along the Manatee River and includes the Bradenton Riverwalk and Bishop Museum of Science and Nature. To the south of Bradenton is Sarasota; beach communities on Anna Maria Island are to its west, and the Manatee River and Palmetto are to its north.
History
Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped slaves named Angola existed in Bradenton's present area starting in the late 1700s and ending in 1821. It is believed to have been spread out between the Manatee River (then known as Oyster River) all the way to Sarasota Bay. The community is estimated to have had 600–750 residents. Angola was a rather large Maroon settlement as the Manatee River at that time was too shallow for US Navy vessels to navigate. The settlement was abandoned after the Creeks, who were aligned with Andrew Jackson, attacked Angola.
When the United States annexed Florida in 1821, two known claimants of land were in the vicinity of Bradenton, but neither of them was confirmed by the US federal government.
Mid- and late 19th century Josiah Gates moved with his family and eight slaves to the present-day Bradenton area in January 1842, after being attracted to the area for its natural beauty. Gates thought the area would be a popular place for new settlers to arrive at because it was near Fort Brooke, and they would need a place to stay temporarily while they were building their homes. He built an inn named Gates House, and his home near present-day 15th Street East. Gates is also credited as being the first known American settler in present-day Manatee County.
Bradenton is named after Dr. Joseph Braden, who relocated from Virginia and to Leon County in the new United States territory of Florida shortly after its annexation by the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1821. There he brought his Virginia slaves and established a cotton plantation. His fort-like house was a refuge for early settlers during the Seminole Wars. Braden owned a sugar plantation in the area. After having financial difficulties from the Panic of 1837, he tried to re-establish himself financially in Manatee County in 1843. To help with the shipment of sugar grown at the new plantation, he constructed a pier in present-day downtown Bradenton. At its base he constructed a stockade home known as Fort Braden. During the Third Seminole War, on April 6, 1856, it was attacked by several Seminole Indians, one of its few, albeit small, direct engagements. Braden was financially successful with his plantation, but ended up moving back to Leon County because of the Panic of 1857.
Major Alden Joseph Adams purchased 400 acres of land in 1876 between present-day Manatee Memorial Hospital and 9th Street East and built his home, the three-story concrete Villa Zanza, there in 1882. Alden was known for having many animals and a large amount of foliage at his home. At one point, he owned over 300,000 acres of land in Manatee County. Adams had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he joined the US Secret Service and later was a newspaper correspondent for the New York Herald. He reported from Paris during the time of the Paris Commune. At one point, he was asked to look for Dr. David Livingstone, but declined and suggested that Henry Morton Stanley go instead. Adams died in 1915, and his home was bought in 1924 with the intent of remodeling it; the effort went uncompleted, and it was demolished at some point in the late 1920s.
William I. Turner bought seven acres from John Crews Pelot in 1877 and create a subdivision of what is now Bradenton. The land itself was platted by Axel Emil Broberg, and it contained 19 plots on both sides of what is now 12th Street West along with a cross street that is currently 3rd Avenue. Turner sold the lots, building a store and a warehouse along with his own home.
The town was originally spelled "Braidentown", as a spelling error was made when it applied for a post office on May 9, 1878. The first bridge across Wares Creek was built in 1886. The following year, Bradenton was designated the county seat after DeSoto County was formed from eastern Manatee County, as the then-county seat, Pine Level, was in the new county. A county courthouse was built in 1890 at Courthouse Square.
20th century
First half of the 20th century
Railroad service was extended from Palmetto across the Manatee River to Bradenton in 1902. Bradenton was incorporated on May 19, 1903, with 59 voting in favor and 34 against it. Shortly after, a local election was held to choose the city's first elected municipal officials. A.T Cornwell was elected as mayor, Robert H. Roesch as clerk and tax assessor, A.B. Murphy as treasurer, and F. Dryman as tax collector, along with seven city council members. One of the earliest moves made by the municipal government was amending the name to "Bradentown".Porter, M. (2014). Manatee history matters. Bradenton Herald. Retrieved from https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article34739931.html However, the name change was not reflected with the US Postal Service until 1905. On December 29, a streetcar line began operation going from Bradenton to the neighboring city of Manatee and went west crossing Wares Creek to the nearby community of Fogartyville. The company operating the line had financial difficulties, likely due to a lack of ridership, and cancelled the line in 1906. The Manavista Hotel was opened in January 1907 bordering the Manatee River on Main Street.
The Davis Bridge, the first general-traffic bridge across the Manatee River, was opened in June 1910. This wooden toll bridge, built by C.H. Davis, had one lane and passing spots. The bridge went from present-day 9th Street East (located within then nearby Manatee) to near where the Atwood Grapefruit Groves were located at west of Ellenton. In 1912, the first road, Range Road leading from present-day Bradenton (then Manatee) to Sarasota, was built. Also during that year, the original county courthouse was bought and moved to a new location, becoming a grade school for black students in the area, Lincoln Academy Grammar School. A new courthouse was built on the site of the old one in the following year, 1913, which still stands today. The Victory Bridge, opened in August 1919, runs from current 10th Street West in Bradenton to 8th Avenue in Palmetto. Funding for the bridge came from bond issues by both Bradenton and Palmetto. The bridge itself had two lanes and was made of wood. Its name came from the United States' recent victory in World War I against the Central Powers. With the Victory Bridge's construction, the municipal government of Manatee attempted to buy Davis Bridge and make it public as a way to compete with Bradenton's Victory Bridge, but the deal never went through. The rest of the bridge ended up being dismantled with the exception of its draw section, which was sold to county government and put into use for the Snead Island's Cutoff bridge in 1920.
1920s and 1930s Baseball spring training began in Bradenton with the construction of Ninth Street Park in 1923. The first team to train in the city was the St. Louis Cardinals, doing so in 1923 and 1924. The city council began the process of removing the "w" letter from its then name "Bradentown" in January 1925 and completed it on May 2, 1925, when the governor signed a bill making it official. All streets in the city were renamed in 1926 with a numbering system.
After the collapse of the Florida land boom of the 1920s and the Great Depression starting in late 1929, the city faced an economic downturn. Along with an economic downturn, the city had financial issues as well with the city going into debt. During the Florida land boom, Bradenton borrowed money as a way to pay for infrastructure to areas that were considered outlying. As a result, the city retracted its municipal boundaries so it could not provide services to those areas and defaulted their municipal bonds as a result. After the municipal boundaries were retracted, the bonds were refunded, and residents who lived in the new boundaries would be responsible for paying it. Bradenton ended up eventually getting its bonds paid off. Despite the economic downturn, several new projects were done in the city. A municipal pier (interchangeably referred to as Memorial Pier) was built in 1927 with a building at its end. The pier itself still stands and the building at its end has served a variety of functions ever since. As the Victory Bridge was deemed too unsafe to use after a hurricane hit it in 1926, the Green Bridge was built the following year in 1927 as a replacement to it. In the meantime, a ferry operated until the Green Bridge was built. On July 22, 1931, a joint committee was appointed by the municipal city councils of Bradenton, Manatee, and Palmetto to consider and possibly even merge the three cities, but nothing came out of the committee in the end. A new post office building in 1937 was built on Manatee Avenue and 9th Street West as a Works Progress Administration project. The post office is still in operation.
Compiled in the late 1930s and first published in 1939, the Florida guide listed Bradenton's population as being 5,986 and described it as:
1940s
Bradenton was affected by World War II, as were many other cities in Florida and the United States. During the war, Manatee County had its own Civil Defense battalion with two subunits existing in Bradenton and another for nearby Manatee. A recreational center was opened in March 1942 at a building on the intersection of 6th Avenue and 12th Street West in the downtown area to be used by soldiers. The recreation center closed in November 1945 and was popular with local soldiers and visited even by those who were stationed outside of Bradenton. Police Chief Clyde Benton expanded the police force by naming 45 officers to serve without pay during the war. Camp Weatherford located at LECOM Field existed for eight months at some point during the war as a training center for the US Army Signal Corps. About 350 soldiers were trained there during its existence. The camp itself often had an issue with being flooded because of the rainy climate, showers at the camp occurring often, clothes being washed, its low elevation and is located nearby to Wares Creek. A soldier named Joe Grossman at the camp ran a radio show broadcasting on WSPB called Weatherford Shinings. Local residents accommodated the troops stationed at the base in a variety of ways. Bradenton merged with nearby Manatee (incorporated in 1888) in 1943. Manatee faced similar financial problems as Bradenton did in regards to their bonds and faced high debt levels as a result but Manatee could not pay off the bonds.
Second half of the 20th century