From Bean's homestead to the City Pier
The north tip of the island is Bean Point, named for George Emerson Bean, the first permanent settler. The local histories quoted by Clio say he set up his homestead on that point in 1892, with his house near where the Rod and Reel Pier stands now. There are still no facilities, lifeguards or parking lot at the point, which is exactly why locals carry a picnic out there for sunset.
After Bean died, his son went into partnership with a real estate investor, and together they laid out the first streets, homes, schools and water system of what became the City of Anna Maria. Today the island holds three small cities: Anna Maria at the north end, Holmes Beach in the middle and Bradenton Beach to the south.
The Anna Maria City Pier has been a fixture since 1911, and storms have not been kind to it. WWSB reports that Hurricane Irma damaged it in 2017 and that Helene and Milton hit it again in 2024. After about two years closed, the rebuilt pier was expected to reopen in fall 2026 on pilings driven far deeper than before, with a new restaurant called PIERadise at the end of the walkway.
Cortez, the fish house next door
Much of the island's seafood story happens across the bridge in Cortez, a working village on Sarasota Bay. Florida Rambler describes it as one of the last fishing villages left on Florida's southwest Gulf Coast, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with old fish houses on the water, small cottages and the Florida Maritime Museum.
Each February the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival fills the waterfront at the end of 123rd Street. It began in 1981 with about 500 people and now draws around 20,000 over the weekend, with live music, nautical crafts and a food court of locally caught grouper and stone crab. Proceeds go to the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage to restore the FISH Preserve east of the village.
