Twenty furnished apartments opened in March 1926 at the El Vernona Apartments-Broadway Apartments, 1133 Fourth Street, now called the Belle Haven. This three-story, L-shaped, stucco and cast stone Mediterranean Revival building was designed by Dwight James Baum as the Broadway or El Vernona Apartments and named for Vernona Hill Freeman Burns, the wife of Owen Burns, the developer. Reinforced concrete and hollow-tile construction by the firm of Ricketts and Haworth produced a fifty-five-room complex of twenty furnished apartments that the Burns Realty Company opened for occupancy in March 1926.
The construction permit was issued by the end of October 1925 and contractors had received materials by December, so by March 1926 the complex, completed at a total cost of $250,000, welcomed residents. Later known commonly as the Belle Haven, this address was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 22, 1984. Notice the Mediterranean Revival stucco and cast-stone details framing this L-shaped, reinforced-concrete building, and the view toward Sarasota Bay marking the Broadway's northern gateway.