Taking Fine Art Photos of a Historic Building in Venice, Florida at Golden Hour

I'm Liesl Walsh and I am a professional photographer in Venice, Florida. I enjoy taking photos of historic buildings to capture their beauty and promote their preservation for generations to come.

In this video I am photographing the Venice Wine & Coffee Co. building in downtown Venice, Florida. It's a historic building from 1926 that has been recently renovated. This building is a prominent structure on West Venice Avenue, and it's wonderful to see the building looking like new with its original design preserved. Next door is Kilwin's. I like to photograph this building because it is important to locals and it shows the charm of our city. I have sold prints of this building many times.

I am taking photos of this building at golden hour when the city is less busy, there are less distractions, fewer people on the sidewalk, and the light is so beautiful with the warm sunlight. My main goal is to capture buildings at a time of day when they are looking their very best. Blue hour and sunrise/sunset are also incredible times of light to photograph architecture. I absolutely love how buildings and cityscapes look at blue hour when the city lights are on.

Many buildings in downtown Venice, Florida were built around 1926 when the city was founded. The history of this town is so interesting with its design by John Nolen, the performers and animals of the Ringling Circus arriving on trains, and the cadets Kentucky Military Institute marching downtown in the winter.

The Venice Wine and Coffee Co. in downtown, Venice, Florida is a historic building built in 1926. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is known as the Johnson-Schoolcraft Building, named after its original owners: William D. Schoolcraft and C. Paul Johnson.

This two story building was constructed of hollow clay tiles with a stucco exterior, at an estimated cost of $45,000. The second floor was designed to have five apartments. The apartments were leased before the building was finished because of limited housing at the time.

On the first floor the first tenant of the retail space was Venice Pharmacy, Inc. The space had a pink onyx soda fountain and solid mahogany fixtures finished in black walnut.

In the rear storefront the Peninsular Telephone Company operated its switchboard starting in 1928. When there was an emergency residents would contact the switchboard operator, who activated a red signal light on the roof of the building. This alerted the police to contact the operator.

In 1978 the Venice Company became the owners of the building. The exterior of the building remained essentially unchanged from its 1926 appearance. In 2024 the building was renovated with a new roof, new windows and doors, new awnings, new tiles on the outside, and the entire exterior painted. The renovation was done keeping the same colors and design as the original building, and to increase the safety for the tenants inside for storms.

Venice is an amazing city in Florida. It sits on the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast and has a beautiful beach, jetty, and pier. You have a couple places at the coast to watch beautiful sunsets each night. Venice's historic main street downtown is full of charm. I love the architecture here, especially the buildings from the 1920's. Venice is known for its wonderful main street area and love of the arts. Venice is just south of Sarasota and is near Englewood, Nokomis, and North Port.

I enjoy photographing the local landmarks here in Florida.

Order prints of this beautiful building here:
https://liesl-walsh.pixels.com/featured/venice-wine-and-coffee-corenovated-florida-liesl-walsh.html

Join Liesl's online photography classes here:

https://www.lieslwalshphotos.com

#veniceflorida #historicpreservation #oldflorida #venicefl #florida #historicarchitecture #gulfcoast #suncoast #oldbuildings #gulfcoastphotographer #fineartphotography #architecture #cityscape #goldenhour #buildingrenovation