Henry B. Plant Museum
in the south wing of Plant Hall and originally
called the Tampa Bay Hotel, the Henry B. Plant museum sits on the
campus of the University of Tampa, concentrating on the turn of the
century Victorian lifestyle of the old hotel's guests, especially
those that could afford the Gilded Age and the start of the state's
and Tampa's huge tourist industry that has grown into the most
fascinating industry in the state today. The entire structure has
become a National Historic Landmark, done so in 1972, and the entire
hotel was constructed for railroad king, Henry B. Plant; with a huge
price tag for its time of $2.5 million. The hotel occupies six acres
itself and is a quarter mile long, with the first elevator installed
in the state, still being used today and now it is one of the oldest
continually operating elevators still in use today. There were 511
rooms, with some of that number actually being suites that held
three to seven rooms inside, with electric light and telephones and
the first in the state. The majority of rooms had their own private
bathrooms, completed with full size tubs, with the room prices
ranging from a low of $5 a night to a high of $15 a night. The
grounds that encompassed this huge structure contained 150 acres
with racetrack, indoor heated swimming pool, golf course, casino and
bowling alley. The grounds would eventually include twenty-one
buildings, while the Moorish revival style that Plant chose because
of the exotic appeal it would have for world travelers, Victorians
that would become his main customers and guests. The hotel has three
domes, six minarets and four cupolas, which were restored to their
original stainless steel condition in the 1990s. It would operate
from 1891 until 1930, welcoming thousands of visitors from around
the world and hundreds of celebrities that included, Teddy
Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Sarah Bernhardt, the Prince of Wales, Clara
Barton, the Queen of England, and Stephen Crane.
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