Lynn and Mildred Gill Silvertooth
The first owners/occupants of 1616 Oak Street were Lynn L. Silvertooth and his wife, Mildred Gill Silvertooth. Mr. Silvertooth was born in Antioch, Tennessee. He was a World War I veteran. He came to Sarasota from Fayeteville, Tennessee in 1919 and was first employed selling automobiles. Mrs. Silvertooth, was the daughter of Jo Gill who came to Sarasota with his family in 1919 from St. Petersburg, Tennessee where he was president of a bank. Gill’s first position in Sarasota was as City Clerk for approximately 4 years. He then went to work at the Bank of Sarasota as cashier and worked his way up to President. In 1932, the bank closed and he went to Plant City as manager of the Plant Hotel.
He returned to Sarasota and became a prominent Sarasota real estate man with the Gill-Thomas, later Gill-McCully real estate firm. His daughter, Mildred Gill, met Lynn Silvertooth in Sarasota in about 1923 and they were married in September of 1924. Upon their return from their honeymoon in October they took up residency in the just completed structure. According to Silvertooth’s nephew, John Gill, the Silvertooths rented the home to John Ringling North during the late 1920s or early 1930s and temporarily lived elsewhere.
In 1942, Mr. Silvertooth became an insurance agent with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company which he was employed by until his retirement in 1970. He was an elder and deacon with the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Silvertooth and their son, Lynn Silvertooth, III (who later became a respected judge in Sarasota), continued to occupy the house until about 1945 at which time, Mr. and Mrs. Silvertooth moved to another house on Pomelo Street in Sarasota.