SAHP Officers

President, Joyce Hart

Joyce Hart, a resident of Sarasota since 1968, is a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design with a BFA, Major in Interior Design. Joyce was with Robb and Stucky Interiors for 23 years, and she and husband Jeff have just created J. Hart Designs LLC. Joyce also participates every year in the Boys and Girls Clubs Designer Showhouse, which raises money to help support the Clubs. She is also a past member of the American Society of Interior Designers Florida North Board, and is a current member of the City of Sarasota Historic Preservation Board. she and husband Jeff live in a 1926 home built by Owen Burns as one of the original spec homes to promote the Ringling Isles Development.

1st Vice President, Wilson Stiles

2nd Vice President, Ron McCarty

Ron McCarty has been a member of the Curatorial Department at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art for the last 30 years, and is currently the Curator and Keeper of Ca'd'Zan, the 36,000 square-foot historic Venetian-Gothic mansion seated on Sarasota Bay. Ron studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute and has been a professional painter specializing in watercolor since the early 1970's. He has exhibited in numerous museum exhibitions and galleries worldwide. Ron has been on the Advisory Board of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at Florida State University for the last 6 years. He coordinates the summer program for the Department of Interior Design held at Ca'd'Zan each year from FSU. He has also contributed his writing talents to numerous publications, and has authored two books; "The Work of Dwight James Baum", Acanthus Press, and "Ca’d’Zan: Ringling’s Venetian Palace" for Scala Publishers.. He serves on the vetting committee for the International Palm Beach Fine Arts Fair held every February.

Recording Secretary, Larry A. Kelleher

I am native to Sarasota, Florida, and fondly refer to myself as a “Sota-Cracker.” After graduating University of Florida, I moved out of state and made my home at first in New Orleans, then later in Houston, Texas. After having enough of not living next the Gulf of Mexico, I returned in 1980 to see Sarasota destroying most of the historic landmarks that I had taken for granted.

I worked in health-care for 25+ years, and as a Food Service Director, had a great deal of experience with the elderly. All too many of them passed away without their story or legacy being told, which prompted me to start a Web site (www.sarasotahistoryalive.com), devoted to telling Sarasota’s interesting and colorful history.

This segued into a popular weekly newsletter, and now a free GPS based Mobile Web-App has been developed, which includes historic buildings, historical markers, stories, public art, ‘then’ photos, vintage postcards, videos - and much more to encourage tourism and education about our remaining assets.

Treasurer, Jon Patella

SAHP Directors

Amy Barnes

Ex-pat Amy Barnes has lived and worked in Florence, Italy, operating principally in the sectors of travel and documentary film-making for the last 30 years. She has served as production/location manager for projects sponsored by the BBC, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, the History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, and Biography. In the travel sector, she has specialized in luxury hiking tours, and has acquired over twenty years' experience in designing and managing itineraries in Italy for Wilderness Travel of Berkeley.  Additionally she has created Italian theme tours regarding garden history, photography, wine, cooking, and family/friend reunions. She is presently based in Sarasota, Fl

Chris Berger

Chris Berger has a master's degree in historic preservation from the University of Florida and wrote his thesis on the preservation of buildings designed by the Sarasota School of Architecture. He works as an architectural historian in Sarasota at ACI, a cultural resources management company. He also writes about and photographs historic places for his blog, gatorpreservationist.wordpress.com.

Martha Horton

I am a retired landscape architect. I have lived in the Sarasota area since 1973. I was drawn to historic preservation trying to save Mayor Gillespie’s house on Morrill Street in the 1980s. So it was a special pleasure recently to create a historic landscape for the relocated Wilson House at Urfer Family Park. (The Wilson House was originally a block away from the Gillespie house.)

I served on the Alliance Board for six years during the fight to save the John Ringling Towers, and came back on the board in 2005. We should be good stewards of the land, including historic structures.

Veronica Morgan

Veronica is a graduate of the Boston Museum School and Tufts University, enjoyed a lengthy career in architectural design and institutional planning, followed by many years renovating significant historic buildings in Sarasota and New England. In her third incarnation, as visual artist, she gives new life to architectural salvage in collage and assemblage and creates visual memoirs through the media of print making, installation, water color and artists books with original poetry. Her studio, a renovated urban barn in Gloucester Mass, welcomes centuries of influence: Lascaux to Tapies, past nourishes present. Her work is held in many private collections and is exhibited nationally with the Society of Layerists in Multi Media and other venues.

Phil Stevens

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design in Interior Architecture, Phil has enjoyed a varied career including furniture designer, commercial interiors, residential kitchens, owning a furniture store and ending up in marketing/sales for Crayola's educational division. Growing up in a town having the largest collection of Connecticut's 18th Century houses, he inherited by osmosis a strong interest and desire in preserving the past. With grandchildren in both Boston and San Francisco, Phil and his wife travel a bit when he is not pruning something in his faux-Selby garden. Showing no regard for real landscape architects, Phil designed and helped install the front garden at HSOSC. A volunteer at Mote, as well as at the Ringling Museum and the Wilson house, he guided downtown Segway tours for 6 years.

Linda Stevenson

Linda D. Stevenson, Phd, RA, LEED - AP is the founding principal of Stevenson Architects, Inc. (1991) and a Florida registered architect with extensive experience in the field of historic preservation, and sustainable design. Recognizing the important role for historic buildings within the sustainability movement, she is a LEED Accredited Professional. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Historic Preservation program at the University of Florida, where she also serves as Co-director for the Preservation Institute Nantucket, the longest continuously operating field school for historic preservation in the United States.

SAHP Ex-Officio Officers