KMI Alumni Association

Written by Sam Schunk
Photography Courtesy of Venice Museum & Archives

Members of the Kentucky Military Institute’s (KMI) alumni association will be coming to Venice, the site of the school’s winter campus, for this month’s reunion, a celebratory event the group holds locally every four years. Over 2,900 graduates are included in the alumni database, with more than 270 of its members currently living in Florida and many residing in the Venice area. A full calendar of activities has been planned for the returning graduates during the three-day event hosted by Bentley’s Boutique Hotel in Osprey.

Fifty Years of Flowers:

The Venice Area Orchid Society

Article Courtesy of the Venice Area Historical Society

The Venice Area Orchid Society has been providing beauty and joy to its members and the community for over 50 years. Founded in 1962, it has grown to be one of the largest orchid societies on the west coast of Florida. The group does “everything orchid,” from mentoring and sharing information about growing these plants to exhibition techniques, hybridization and the promotion, conservation and protection of native species.

Venice Area Historical Society

Couples Who Made History

Article by the Venice Area Historical Society and Photography
Provided by the Venice Archives and Area Historical Collection

In this month of romance, we focus on three couples, the Blackburns, Albees and Worthingtons, who each came to Florida seeking opportunity in the wilderness and made significant contributions to Venice area history.

Florida’s Gulf Intracoastal Waterway

How Venice Became an Island with Three Bridges & a Bypass

Article Provided Courtesy of the Venice Area Historical Society

The story of how and when Venice became an island began on a nation-al scale. In the early 1800s, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the idea of protecting the commercial and military shipping routes along the American coastline from rough seas and enemy attacks was proposed to Congress. Eventually, an in-tracoastal waterway from Boston to Browns-ville, Texas, took shape, as both publicly and privately financed canals were stitched together along the eastern and Gulf coasts. 

Mediterranean-Inspired Beauty by the Gulf

The Architecture of Venice Island

Article provided by the Venice Area Historical Society - Photography provided by Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation

The Venice Airport Heritage

From Humble Beginnings to a Contemporary Municipal Airport

Article Courtesy of the Venice Area Historical Society and Photography
Courtesy of Venice Museum and Archives

Venice was a thriving community when it emerged in the mid-1920s. By the mid-1930s, however, the city’s population declined from almost 4,000 to a few hundred people. The area benefitted when Dr. Fred Albee, a renowned orthopedic surgeon and investor in our region, established the Florida Medical Center in 1933, which attracted the city’s first airport to Venice.