The Tampa Bay Hotel is now home to the University of Tampa, and the building’s southern wing has been preserved as the Henry B. Plant museum in order to show off the hotel’s glory days.
The Tampa Bay Hotel took two years to build and 2.5 million dollars to complete. It opened on February 5, 1891 in the sleepy fishing village of Tampa.
Here’s what it looked like back in the day:
Here’s what the building looks like today:
As one can tell from the first picture, the Henry B. Plant museum is located along the Hillsborough River and it is within walking distance of the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa Museum of Art, Curtix Hixon Park and Glazer Children’s Museum.
I was lucky enough to snag one of the free parking slots on the street in front of the museum. If you aren’t lucky like me there is also free parking in a garage on North Blvd and Spaulding Dr.
Before entering the museum, I took a quick, pleasant stroll through the museum/University of Tampa’s garden along the river which is directly in front of the museum. It looked like this:
Upon entry to the museum I received an audio-wand for a self-guided tour. For the uninitiated, that means each exhibit in the museum is marked by a visible number. Punch in the number on the audio-wand keypad and listen as the wand tells you what you are looking at.
For example, punch in #1 to learn about the below exhibit.
So, all the pictures in this article are dim. Why?
- It was cloudy, rainy day when I explored the grounds. Not a lot of light made it through the windows.
- For the sake of historical accuracy, the museum uses the original wattage for their light bulbs. Like this:
Normally, I would have methodically followed the numbers in ascending order. Which is one of my weirdo personality traits. But I actually didn’t do that this time. I don’t know why. Instead, I wandered around the museum and audio-wanded the things that looked interesting.
Henry B. Plant and his wife filled his hotel with tons of odd sculptures, statues, and furniture. Here’s a small taste of what you will experience:
A fun tidbit of history concerning the Tampa Bay Hotel has to do with the 1898 Spanish-American War. Tampa Bay was chosen as the shoving off point for American soldiers debarking for Cuba. The Tampa Bay Hotel was the temporary headquarters of the war machine. Generals, high-ranking officials, and my favorite American of all-time, Theodore Roosevelt, stayed at the hotel to plan the war effort.
The troops camped out on the grounds. TR drilled his troops, known to history as the Rough Riders, near the hotel.
One of the rooms in the museum is dedicated to this historical time period. It includes photos, uniforms, time-period American flag, and guns.
Okay, I know this has been a photo heavy article, but I still have a few more to share and then I’ll finish off this article. First, the main hallway. It certainly gave me a feel for a different time and place.
Second, here’s what one of the rooms looked like. This particular room was located directly underneath one of the minarets. The window glass was specially made because they curve with the building.
Third, there are a bunch of cool infinity mirrors placed in the hall way. It’s when two mirrors are placed across from each other and the reflections go into each other forever.
Third and final, here’s my picture of a portrait of the man himself:
Overall, I give this place a thumbs up. If you are a local I highly recommend it.
Doing it on the cheap…
The museum participates in Tampa’s Fourth Friday Celebration, a celebration of free admission to many downtown cultural exhibits that occurs ever 4th Friday of the month. Typically, the Plant Museum is available for 4th Friday free admission between 4:00pm – 5:00pm.
This is a Blue Star Museum. Memorial Day through Labor Day the Museum is offers free admission to active duty United States military and up to five family members.
Years ago, the museum participated in http://www.plantmuseum.com/
(article updated 08/19/19)
