HENRY BRADLEY PLANT AND HIS PALACE:
THE TAMPA BAY HOTEL Henry Bradley Plant (October 27, 1819June 23, 1899), the acclaimed “King of Florida” was born in Branford, Connecticut; he declined his grandmother’s offer to attend Yale College and, at the age of 18, signed on as a captain’s boy abroad a steamboat. His career started with the Adams Express Company which involved both the railroad and steamboat business package. In 1953 doctors ordered his wife, Ellen Elizabeth Blackstone, to whom he married in 1842, south for health reasons. Sadly to say she died in 1861. He would later marry Margaret Loughman in 1873.
the approach of the Civil War the directors of Adams Express, fearing the confiscation of their Southern properties, decided to transfer them to Plant. With the Southern Stockholders of the company he organized in 1861 the Southern Express Company, a Georgia corporation, and became president. His company acted as agent for the Confederacy in collecting tariffs and transferring funds. After the Civil War, railroads of the South were practically ruined and many railroads went bankrupt in the depression of 1873. Plant began buying small bankrupt railroad companies and connected rail lines between Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida.
Pre- Civil War among his various duties was the Henry Plant In addition to railroads, his transportation empire October 27, 1819 – June 23, 1989 care of express parcels. This line of business up until included steamship service from Nova Scotia to now had been neglected. He was organized and Cuba. Plant was convinced of the eventual economic revival of the extremely efficient. Soon after he became the general superintendent South. In 1879 and 1880, he bought the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad and of the Adams Express Company, for the south territory south of the the Charleston and Savannah Railroad at foreclosure sales. With these Potomac and Ohio Rivers. Facing great difficulties he successfully as a nucleus he began building along the Southern Atlantic seaboard a organized and extended express service in this region as well. At transportation system that twenty years later included fourteen railway
companies with 2,100 miles of track, several steamship lines, and a number of important hotels. In 1882, he organized, with the assistance of Northern capitalists (among whom were M.K. Jesup, W.T. Walters, and Henry Morrison Flagler, who himself would be instrumental in the development of Florida’s east coast) the Plant Investment Company, a holding company for the joint management of the various properties under his control. He reconstructed and extended several small railroads so as to provide continuous service across the state, by providing better connections with through lines to the North he gave Florida orange growers quicker and cheaper access to Northern markets. Tampa, then a village of a few hundred people, was made the terminus of his southern Florida railroad and also the home port for a new line of steamships to Havana. It was through the pivotal efforts of Henry Plant that Florida’s West Coast began to grow and thrive as an important shipping port, commercial hub and tourist destination. Then came the idea for a luxurious resort built in the style of a Moorish palace, an enormous hotel costing $2,500.000.00 to build and another half-million to furnish. Investors were leery of building a hotel of the magnitude Plant envisioned, so Plant decided to build it himself. The hotel was the most modern of its day. Electric lighting, private baths, telephones, and elevators were only some of its amenities. Steel rails embedded in poured concrete floors made the structure fireproof. The Tampa Bay Hotel offered a variety of activities to entertain guests. Hunting and fishing were available through the hotel’s own
Boats on Hillsborough River in front of the Tampa Bay Hotel, March 16, 1923
guide. Golf, tennis, horse racing, dancing, boating and swimming were popular also. The resort was only open from December through April; the hotel offered a lavish oasis from the extreme cold in the North. The Tampa Bay Casino, constructed in the grounds in 1896 seated 2,000 people; it was Tampa’s first performing arts venue. Famous Actors, musicians and entertainers such as Booker T. Washington, Anna Pavlova (one of the most famous prima ballerinas), John Philip Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt (most acclaimed actress of her day, she gave her farewell performance at the Casino in 1906), Nellie Melba (performed to sell out crowds), Ignancy Jan Paderewski (world renowned Polish Pianist), and Minnie Maddern Fiske were among the many celebrities who appeared. The Casino also served as a spa with a heated indoor