Our Life: Henry B. Plant Museum

This was actually the back side of the hotel

I am not sure if anyone has noticed...but I have fallen in love with Tampa. I remember coming to Tampa as a high schooler for drama competition and saying that I would NEVER live here. Well, never say never, right? I really have come to love the area in which we live as well as enjoy and appreciate the history and experiences we have been exposed to. It's been quite fun.

Today, we learned about another extremely influential man. A man whom, some would argue, put Tampa "on the map". Mr. Henry B. Plant, an entrepreneur, railroad tycoon, master marketer, and it seems, a pretty nice guy. (Bet you thought nearby Plant City was named so because of the huge strawberry plant industry. Well, I did).

Plant Park

In the late 1800s, Tampa was a quiet town of around 300 people, surrounded by water and swarmed by mosquitoes and rattle snakes. With no air condition, it was not the ideal place to live most of the year, and there was no way to really get here.

Enter Henry Plant. As he grew into a wealthy young man (from a lot of ingenuity and hard work...he came from a poor family), he caught a vision of all that Florida had to offer. He began buying and building railroads until he finally decided that he wanted to make the largest, most beautiful hotel on the bay of Tampa. He could not talk his regular investors into the idea, so he financed it all himself.

With inspiration from all over the world, he created The Tampa Hotel, a true masterpiece and place of Victorian Eloquence.

Only the extremely wealthy could afford to stay at the hotel.

Patio wrapped all the way around the hotel

Attention to every detail

With unique architecture, including the minarets found no where else in the country at its time, it became THE place to visit.

Plant and his wife purchased all of the furniture on a European trip and spent between 2.5 and 3 million dollars in 1890. One calculation I found suggested that would be equal to $15 million today.

A photo of the hotel in it's heyday

Henry Plant had strategic friendships in many different fields, including government. He convinced President McKinley to use Tampa as the strategic port for the Spanish-American War, instead of Miami. Why would he want to do this?

Plant owned the railways into Tampa.

Plant owned (and actually created the port) in Tampa,

Plant owned the large and luxurious hotel for the officers to stay in.

And Plant wanted Tampa to be on the map. The city of Tampa was in every newspaper headline at some point during that time. So, it seems that Henry Plant helped to put Tampa, Florida on the map.

Spanish-American Wary memorabilia

Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" participated in the Spanish-American War. Teddy's wife stayed at the hotel. He would come and visit with her, however he slept with his soldiers out in the field.

The museum was quite interesting as we followed Ms. Faith, our Docent, on a tour of the hotel and through several museum rooms.

The lobby of the hotel (the ceiling in this picture was not originally there, it was a high ceiling with the second and third floor overlooking via balconies. There is hope it will be restored in a few years)

The Tampa Hotel had the second elevator in the state of Florida

Double staircases are found throughout the hotel. However, the Horse head is not original.

We spent time in the Cigar Parlor where the men would socialize, write and smoke their cigars.

We saw the dance hall and wrap around patio that was often used for social functions.

Unfortunately, during the 20s, depression of the 30s and World War II, The Tampa Hotel fell out of style. Even the wealthy no longer flocked the opulent hotel with its attention to detail. The homeless are said to have taken over parts of the hotel during the depression and cause damage to some original furniture, including burning it for warmth.

A small band would sit up here and play, while the people below listened

All of the doors were designed with this key hole shape. Although the light bulb had been invented, it wasn't very bright yet, so Plant wanted to make sure there was plenty of light that was passed through the rooms. The doors are authentic.

The museum housed many items that were originally in the hotel.

However, the hotel was saved by University of Tampa, who decided to rent the building for $1. Over the years, restoration and repair have come to the building, and it now stands, once again, as a symbol of Tampa Bay.

A typical dining table

maid uniform

Henry Plant did not want his hotel to burn down (the leading cause of structure damage in that time since almost everything was built of wood). Therefore, he built his hotel with brick and used railroad ties for the flooring.

Each room had it's own telephone, which is funny. There was no long distance calling at the time, and there were no other phones in Tampa, so the phones in the room were only used for room to room calls.

I love the piano

Cute stools that were found around the property: a mushroom, top left is a toad, and top right is a monkey.

I LOVE this and want it in my house.

After our museum trip, we watched a 20 minute performance where the children learned about the clothing of the Victorian Era. It was really fun, and a great demonstration of what the people wore.