Henry B. Plant Museum, History museum in Tampa, United States
The Henry B. Plant Museum is a history museum housed in the former Tampa Bay Hotel building with Moorish Revival architecture and silver minarets rising above red brick. The exhibition rooms display furniture and art objects from the 1880s to 1910s within spaces originally designed as hotel suites.
Henry B. Plant opened the resort as part of his railroad line into Tampa and aimed to attract wealthy travelers from the North. The building became a campus for the University of Tampa starting in 1901 and was partly converted into a museum during the 1930s.
The museum exhibits European and Oriental art collections gathered by Henry and Mary Plant, reflecting the luxury standards of nineteenth-century American society.
Most rooms are accessible on the ground floor and tours take about an hour. Audio guides help with self-directed exploration of the collections and rooms.
Some rooms still show the original plumbing and electrical fixtures from before 1900. Staff sometimes display replicas of historical menu cards in the dining hall.
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