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.

All the way down to their knickers, camisoles, and long johns :)

We ended the day with a picnic in Plant Park with some friends.  Another nice day...in the books.

Friends!  Claire, Hannah, Tori, Henry, Nate, Nicole

Overlooking the river.

Sweet Tori, loving on two of my kiddos

Ringling Museum of Art

The kids with our friend, Henry

We had a wonderful day exploring the Ringling Museum of Art (and surrounding gardens). The museum is free on Mondays, so my friend Amy and I decided to give it a try.

I have never been to an art museum before...but that has all changed.  I can not wait to go back!

Enjoying the rose garden

Looking for the pretties rose

The grounds were amazingly beautiful.  Mature banyans, rose gardens, native and exotic plants fill the walkway.

We took a few minutes and walked around the Ca d'Zan Mansion (Venetian for 'house of John'  (I could imagine a "Great Gatsby-esque party on the back patio).  The owners were the founders of the Ringling Circus, and the performance influence was easy to see .

Maybe next time I will get to venture inside this beautiful home.

The children played in the play area for a few minutes before the heat forced us inside.

The museum itself was modeled after the old Roman times with pillars, sculptures, statues, and marble.  Inside was a variety of exhibits.

Our first stop was the temporary collection "Intent to Deceive- Fakings and Forgeries in the Art World."  The kids had fun trying to predict which piece of art was real and which was the fake (actually, I think they just liked to lift the flap).  We learned about the 'artists' who not only copied  well known pieces of art, but tried to pass them off as authentic.  I should have written the names down and some of their quotes because we could not take pictures in that exhibit, but the post-modern thought of these men permeated their decisions.  One man said something along the lines of "I only sold my replicas to experts who should have been able to test and know the authenticity of the work.  If they couldn't tell it was a fake, that wasn't my fault, but theirs."  Another man said, "If my art hangs in museums long enough...then it becomes real."  The sad part was...these men were getting just what they wanted.  They were becoming famous for their crime, and their work was hanging in museums...thus, in a way, making them real.

It's interesting because the best way to become a master at something is to imitate an expert who has come before you.  Even Bejamin Franklin did this, to better his writing skills, he would imitate a writer he wanted to be like.  So, a wonderful way of becoming a better artist is to imitate the person you would like to be like.  I'm pretty sure that is Biblical too.  The apostle Paul tells us to imitate him, as he imitates Christ.  So, these men were in fact great artists, the problem is that they were also liars.  They were not master artists like Monet because after they imitated Monet, they had to put his name on it to try to make it worth something.

After a quick picnic lunch, we made our way back to the museum and entered the wonderful hall of classic Renaissance, Classical, Romantic, and Baroque artists.  It was Amazing!

The courtyard was beautiful.

The kids have never experienced an art display like this.  I think we were all quite shocked at the amount of nudity in the pictures and statues (well, they didn't say anything about the paintings, just the statues.  Distraction...distraction was key here...)  We got to see painting that were over 400 years old and even by artists we have learned about in CC including Rembrandt, El Greco, and Gainsborough.

Lamentations by Rembrandt c.1635

Decorative Wall Covers by Juriaan Andriessen c. 1800 (see below)

A Harpsichord (pre-piano).  We have learned about this instrument when studying Mozart, who was known for his harpsichord playing.  The instrument plucked the string, instead of pounding them like the modern day piano.  Very different sound.

1652

Pretty much what they looked like.

A glass crib.  The kids weren't sure what to think about it.

The following pieces are a few of Peter Paul Ruben's pieces from the 1600s.  The Ringling Museum houses 5 of the 7 remaining tapestries from this artist.

Oh....I forget what this is called...but it's the Manna falling from heaven for the Israelite

Abraham and Melchizedek

I can not wait to go back!