John H. Floyd's dreams were contagious. He would start building with a big idea and a tiny budget. Everyone from students and church people to community leaders and foundations worked to accomplish his goals.
Floyd began improving Sarasota from the time he arrived in 1925. The young builder joined the Choirs Union, which was comprised of the choir members of nine area black churches. At the time there was no care for the black aged and infirm except volunteer care in private homes. With his leadership, the Choirs Union started the Old Folk Aid Club. Two years later, the club bought an acre of land for $300. Volunteers began to build the first Old Folk Aid Home on their 4th of July holiday with a treasury of $700.
The Sarasota County Commission helped find a site for a new building. With money raising activities and donations from the Exchange Club, the Ferguson and Payne families, the Selby Foundation, and United Appeal, the forty-eight-bed home on five acres was built in 1966, and later expanded. In 1982, it was named J. H. Floyd Sunshine Manor.
Floyd built the Truevine Missionary Baptist Church, New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, the USO Recreation Building for black soldiers in WWII, (which became the Newtown Recreation Center), and Newtown Day Nursery.
In 1957 he was called to pastor the Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. With volunteer labor and $1,160.24 in the building fund, he began a new church building. Under his leadership from 1957 to 1974, the church never borrowed money or had a mortgage.
At Booker High, Floyd's carpentry students constructed a building. When the school added a band, he raised funds for instruments. "He was a part of almost every advancement in his time," author Annie McElroy said.