Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name.

Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

When the party reached land on the island, the Indians fled leaving their Longboat in a bayou.

A fishing camp and a trading post for Native Americans existed in the northern part of the key located in what is presently the Longboat Village.

The only thing known is that Charles Abbe had a plantation at an unknown location on the island where citrus and pineapples were grown.

He left because of either a local yellow fever epidemic or prejudice against him from being from the Northern United States.

Thomas Mann sold his land in 1898 to May and June Pointevesant of Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Longboat Key's first post office was established in 1907 at Byron Corey's pier at the southern end of the island, where he owned 153.5 acres (62 ha) of land beginning in 1903.

Another community was also started at about the same time, named Island Beach, located south of it.

[8] During the early 1900s and prior to the 1921 hurricane, Longboat Key had a significant farming presence, with local residents growing a variety of products.

A 1912 Sarasota Times headline read: "From a lonely Key, it is now a center of trucking and fruit growing.

Starting in 1923, John Ringling purchased a large amount of land on Longboat Key.

[4] In February 1926, Ringling entered a contract to develop a luxury hotel named the Ritz-Carlton on the south side of the island.

Ringling found himself preoccupied with other financial interests, and during that year the Florida land boom began to slow down as well.

Sweeney said the hotel would have two 18 hole golf courses, an airport, a club and facilities for fishing, along with 235 rooms when completed.

The range was used between 8am and 5pm, which meant that residents on the northern side of the island could not go south of it until after its training sessions.

The nearby cities of Sarasota and Bradenton and the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport rounds out Longboat Key's varied list of geographic amenities.

State Road 789 (Gulf of Mexico Drive) runs the length of the island, with ancillary boulevards branching off to residential neighborhoods.

At other points the island widens and accommodates various homes owned by both singly and in condominiums, hotels, and sports clubs.

[20] Jewfish Key is an island that covers 38 acres (150,000 m2) located within city limits.

When the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged the Intracoastal Waterway they needed a place to deposit the spoil; and the two owners (whose last names were Jordan and Zeisse) allowed for the spoil to be placed in order to make a single island in exchange for a deed to this now one island and "a case of whisky".

Salinity and sedimentary factors threatened the availability of potable water to island residents, visitors, and businesses.

This problem was alleviated sufficiently when the Governing Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District approved a connection to Sarasota County's water supply, augmenting the existing connection to that of Manatee County.

[30] The United States Postal Service operates a post office on Longboat Key, with the entire island having the ZIP code of 34228.

The post office was established on October 10, 1907, as "Longbeach", and was located in the community of that name on the north end of the key.

Officials did, however, ask state legislators to request the Florida Legislature's OPPAGA perform an analysis of the potential benefits and drawbacks of moving into only one county.