Tampa Bay Hotel
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N 27° 56.750 W 082° 27.802
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Tampa Bay hotel historic marker located on West Kennedy Boulevard at University Dr on the campus the University of Tampa, Tampa, FL.
Waymark Code: WM5WH6
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/20/2009
Views: 24
Tampa Bay hotel historic marker located on West Kennedy Boulevard at University Dr on the campus the University of Tampa, Tampa, FL.
Text:
Henry B. Plant built this ornate Moorish structure at a cost of $3 million. Opened in 1891, it became the social and cultural center of early Tampa. During the Spanish American War it was headquarters for troops going to Cuba and house such visitors as Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Clara Barton, Richard Harding Davis and Gen. Nelson Miles. Purchased by the City of Tampa in 1905, it has served as the main building of the University of Tampa since 1933.
From Wikipedia:
The Tampa Bay Hotel was built by railroad magnate Henry B. Plant at a cost of over 2.5 million dollars.[3] It was considered the premier hotel of the eight that Mr. Plant built to anchor his rail line. The hotel itself covers 6 acres (24,000 m2) and is a quarter-mile long. It 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. 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. Most rooms also included private bathrooms, complete with a full-size tub. The price for a room ranged from $5.00 to $15.00 a night at a time when the average hotel in Tampa charged $1.25 to $2.00. The building’s poured concrete steel reinforced structure was advertised as fireproof.
F-31 Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials 1961
Marker Number: F-31
Date: 1961
County: Hillsborough
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials
Website: [Web Link]
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