A scant eight miles long, from Siesta Key to the Island of Venice, this
narrow length of land is dotted with private tennis courts, resort-style
swimming pools, quaint guest cottages and magnificent estates sharing what
might be the most expensive slice of real estate along Florida’s West Coat.
Casey Key is less than 300 yards wide in most places, but her shores are
lined by the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Little Sarasota Bay to the east and
the Venice inlet to the south, offering spectacular water views from every
direction. Casey Key is home to less than 400 residences and almost
completely comprised of single family homes, with an average sale price of
more than $3 million and several residences with prices in the record books.
Strict zoning restrictions and a piece of legislation from the 1970s that
deemed much of the island a conservation district insure the continuance of
a lifestyle that feels worlds apart from the traffic jams and tumult of
southwest Florida. Casey Key is named for Army Captain John Casey who came
to the area in 1849 to quiet Seminole Indian uprisings and stayed around to
assist in the original surveys of the coastline. An enterprising land
developer tried unsuccessfully to change the name to Treasure Island to sell
lots during the 1920s land boom and there is an unsubstantiated rumor that
actual buried treasure was discovered under the sand on the north end of the
island. Casey Key is also famous as a temporary home to writer John D.
MacDonald, who authored “Flash of Green” and described the brilliant emerald
burst that is visible on rare occasions for fleeting seconds when the orange
sun sinks below the horizon.
