Henry B. PLant started out as a cabin boy on a steamship....when the war came along and did financial damage to the steamship company he bought it...then we bought bankrupt railways and he was "the" railroad tycoon...then he built hotels that his RR would lead you too...pretty smart fella.
And....Mrs. Plant
This place was huge....and gorgeous, in its "prime" it was the place to go.
and then.....
The Grand Opening was...Feb 5, 1891
Here is the announcement...a little hard to read
This beautiful long and deep front porch was a great gathering place. In fact, while we were there a bridal party showed up to take some pictures....I'm sure that happens often.
The porch now..................................................and the porch back when if you can see the picture...
The frog and monkey are garden seats.....too funny.
You can see in the picture, there were plenty of gardens to sit in...
After you walk in each person gets a recording thing...u punch in the numbers that corespond to the item you are looking at and want to hear more about. It was very cool, and worked well.
You also had to wear this sticker...
This is called a grand hallway...was made the way it was for optimal light and for a cross breeze to blow if windows and doors were open.
Many statues adorned the front porch and front entrance....just for decoration. The lady holding the is still holding the original light. It is lower voltage and was making a point of the nice electricity the hotel had. They didn't cover the bulbs in any rooms....why cover such a nice new invention!!!
An original guest registry...it cost between $2 and $5 to stay per night
He had Inns all over FL....Fort Myers, Punta Gorda.....but this was the biggest.
Items used on his railroad cars....
Items for his steamships.....
His steamships went to 3 different countries....
A typical bathroom, after the upgrades...originally the tile you see was all wood....including the tub.
It was a wood bowl with a copper insert. This was a step up with hot and cold running water.
People that worked at the hotel...
A payrol record....
They were very proud of the finials...
This piece can be seen in the picture... it is 3 panels that symbolize wine/women/and song....it was in the back of the Music Room where guests went for entertainment...
The original door to the music room....
Inside the music room...with a replica of the above panels on the wall. Note the balcony...we were told that if women went to the music room without an escort they had to sit in the balcony....the rules of yesteryear for women...too funny.
Women had many different activities they could engage in while men could hunt, fish....etc. If a woman wanted to, she could hunt and fish as well, but most didn't.
Original chairs and a photo of a woman heading up to the grand porch...
This is original carpeting from the hotel....note the lions. This carpet was originally made for royalty in England but they would not walk on the lions....so, Mr. Plant was able to get almost 7 miles of it for not a lot of money. Then he and Mrs. Plant went to Europe and bought 41 train car loads of furnishings for the hotel....amazing.
Dining was very special....lots of service and lots of dishes...
I'm not sure you can tell that each place setting has different China, this was just to show that every course was served on a different China....wow....just lovely.
A picture of the Grand Dining Hall set and ready to serve..
And another picture from 1926
This is how it looks today.....used by the college and called Fletcher Hall. It was a library for a while, but that changed.
Some dishes from the Hotel days....
Many different room types...The Parlor Suite was a 3 room suite and was the BEST in the hotel.
The music room, where if you didn't not bring someone to entertain you a private musician would be sent to your room...
The library room......
The fireplace in the bedroom...note the keyhole designs in the wood on either side of the mantle...this was a signature design throughout the hotel in windows and doorways.
A nice closet for all the many changes of clothes....back them they changed clothes 3-4 times a day.
A lamp....wow!!!
This was an original piece that sat in the lobby.....with the picture of it in the lobby....
So fancy.....
This room displayed many of the sporting things available...
Shuffle board, crouqet, cards, just about anything
Some of the many people that visited The Tampa Bay Hotel
There was also a casino at one time, but it burnt down.
The "maid" setting in the chair is sitting outside the closet that held her cleaning supplies and it was right beside the staircase....easy access to the rooms upstairs since there was no elevator and the rooms were cleaned and "tended" to several times a day. In this hotel the ground floor was most expensive....no stairs to get to your room.
I wandered through the museum for a long time...the guys got tired and moved to the main part of the hotel and waited....patiently....
Once in the main part you could go see the exisiting rooms....although a bit renovated for better use, still much like they were....A/C had been added though....whew.
A grand staircase...note the keyhole design around the mirror...
Even all the doorknobs were made in teardrop shapes, so they would feel nice in your hand...wow, so many details...
It was a delightful tour .....
The fountain has Henry Bradley Plant on it.....
Now it was time to got to Edison's for dinner...
We tried this a few weeks ago to find out they were not open for lunch...so today we planned it for dinner. It was a most unusal dinner with the oddest flavors....like doughnut holes with prosciutto on them....odd, but good. Dan ordered all tapas...they all sounded good great. Cheryl got a wonderful fish and salad....Denny and I shared some appetizers and a salmon dinner...it was YUM-O!!!
I think we'll go back!!
What a fun day, so many things to do......
