Friends of Seagate Inc.

Its most notable project was the preservation of Seagate, the former home of Cincinnati, Ohio, industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. and his wife, Gwendolyn, and its later owners, Mabel and Freeman Horton.

In 2002 the organization tried to secure Rus-in- Ur'be, an undeveloped parcel of land in the center of the Indian Beach Sapphire Shores neighborhood, as a local park; however, as of 2014, real estate developers intend to build condominium units at the site.

[citation needed] Following public acquisition of the Seagate property, the nonprofit organization's objectives expanded to include broader community development, conservation, and preservation issues that involvedg other archaeological, artistic, cultural, built and natural environmental, and historical concerns.

[citation needed] Platted as a residential subdivision named Sea Gate in 1925, Cincinnati, Ohio, industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. acquired the property that became known as Seagate in 1929.

[2][8][9] Seagate changed ownership several times, and several unsuccessful plans were submitted for its commercial development, until a local campaign for its preservation resulted in the property's public acquisition.

Subsequent owners included Mabel and Freeman Horton, who was a civil engineer who proposed the construction of the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay.

Dudley E. DeGroot,[15] a member of the Friends of Seagate board of directors, led an archaeological survey of the area that Benz conducted and registered.

The location of the campus's three-story building is derived from a plan that Benz proposed, which included use of open space on the parcel of land in order to preserve the uplands slash pine forest that dominated the eastern portion of the property.

Except for a small stand in which gopher tortoise habitat existed, most of the mature pine trees were lost to a clear-cut of the land that would become the campus parking lot.

The partners intended to hold the Rus In Ur'be property in the center of the Indian Beach Sapphire Shores neighborhood of Sarasota for use as a local park.

The grant request was approved as part of the Series FF2 funding cycle,[18] but the partners were unable to acquire it before the land was sold for private development.

[19] The parcel of more than 11 acres (4.5 hectares) contained a wooded and undeveloped land, wetlands, a tennis court, and a Sarasota School of Architecture structure that served as a private clubhouse or recreational lounge for a bay-front home on Bay Shore Road opposite the property.

The timber-framed clubhouse of pecky cypress included a roof with glazed blue Japanese ceramic tiles and expansive glass partitions along the western elevation, facing the tennis courts.

Some of the neighborhood residents still wanted the remaining undeveloped property to be a community park; however, a real estate developer purchased two parcels of vacant land in 2014, intending to build single-family homes and condominium units on the sites.