401 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Henry Bradley Plant was a railroad tycoon of the 1880s. He built the Tampa Bay Hotel as a grand palace; it covers six acres and is a quarter-mile long. The Moorish theme was selected because of its exotic appeal to well traveled Victorians.
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Landmark Trivia
- The 511 rooms, some of which were actually suites consisting of between three-to-seven rooms, were the first in Florida to have electric lights and telephones.
- The Henry B. Plant Museum is located in the south wing of the building and is dedicated to preserving the glory days of the old Tampa Bay Hotel.
- The hotel is currently owned by the University of Tampa which uses the majority of the building for classrooms and offices.
- The hotel was equipped with the first elevator ever installed in Florida. The elevator is still in use today making it one of the oldest continually operational elevators in the nation.
- When the Spanish-American War broke out, Plant convinced the United States military to use the hotel as a base of operations. The Generals and high ranking officers stayed in the rooms of the hotel and planned invasion strategies while the enlisted men camped on the hotel’s ground.
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