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we're at henry b plant museum today we
wanted to check it out because we've
always seen this building anytime we go
anywhere in tampa well most of the place
when we go in tampa we always pass by
this building or we see it in the
distance
and candy's seen it from
the riverwalk yeah that's like i don't
know like four or five years ago maybe
and i was like what is that across the
river because it really stands out and
almost looks like a weird not weird just
very unusual architecture compared to
everything else around in the area so i
was always i was kind of interested in
knowing what that was this is actually a
university uh it used to be the tampa
bay hotel which opened in the late 1800s
but now it is a university a university
of tampa um with a little museum on the
side yeah there's a little museum on the
side so
we just wanted to check out what it was
about and see the history um because
supposedly henry b plan is a big part of
tampa's history and that's why it's
named after him so we'll find out what
that's all about but this area itself is
really beautiful initially i found out
about this place because when i'm
looking up where to shoot portraits this
location comes up a lot because the
architecture here is so gorgeous it
makes for pretty pictures for sure not
only the building but there's a park uh
right next to it too that is gorgeous so
i think it's it's called henry b plant
park right uh probably i think it
probably is about i guess i thought i
saw a slime when we're driving in that
but anyways yeah the park is gorgeous
the trees are so pretty
here as far as parking here uh we
were here on a sunday and we found some
street parking right in front of the
museum but they also do have a dedicated
parking on the other side so there's no
problem parking around here
it's on a weekend maybe weekday might be
a little bit different because they do
have school hours so i'm not sure how it
is on the weekdays but generally you can
park anywhere around here or you can go
across the street where riverwalk is and
then cross the bridge from there walk
the bridge from there and come to this
museum as well so lots of options you
have parking is not a problem but today
we came on a sunday because we heard
that they do plays every sunday at 2 p.m
it's basically portraying what it was
like back in the day to be in that hotel
so it ranges from like um and every week
it changes too from the perspect the
person's perspective so today i'm not
sure what it was today i forgot to look
it up but i think last week was henry
dobson which was a soldier that used to
um
that stayed here at this hotel during
that time and then you know they do
plays on teddy roosevelt and the rough
riders when he was here around that time
so i just thought it was like really
interesting that they actually do a play
yeah i don't think i've ever been to a
museum where they had like a play going
on and it's not even extra it's like
part of the museum cost yep so that's
pretty cool yeah so
all right well you ready to head on in
yeah let's go
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so we just got done with uh touring the
museum and it is very interesting
now we know why henry b plant is called
king of florida
which at first we went in we're like
okay what king of florida okay just like
this guy is so full of himself not only
king of florida but also that it was the
first magic kingdom we're like what you
mean like
magic kingdom like walt disney yeah we
were so confused but uh when you go in
um there's uh
you can scan a qr code
and you can listen to an audio tour but
before that i highly suggest watching
the intro video that they have in the
room it was about what 15 minutes or so
yeah it gives a great brief like
overview of henry v plant and what he
did to tampa or well about this hotel
too
which is now university so the hotel
tampa bay hotel was built in the late
1890s and it was by henry b plant hence
why the museum is called after him so he
is the one who built this
massive resort in tampa and before this
resort there wasn't much in tampa
florida at all now and so with his
railroad system and his steamship system
more people were able to come to tampa
and see this resort and this resort was
fancy it was huge i mean they mentioned
in the video it was like all the wealthy
people around the us wanted to come and
stay here because it was the place for
the wealthy people to come yeah and
visit and yeah because it's not even
just a hotel there was like what uh a
golf course casino
horseback riding was there a pool too i
mean they just listed so many things i'm
just like okay it really was like a
magic kingdom yeah
it was a full-on resort
and he spent 2.5 million dollars
building it plus another half a mil to
furnish it because he got some of the
best furniture from europe some were
marie antoinette's collections like the
best of the best from paris so he went
all out and some of the original
furnishings are actually in the museum
which is um yeah when you walk in then
you can tell like all right this is uh
this looks expensive
probably ought to be super rich to stay
here oh yeah i mean yeah because even
now in modern times when you look at it
you just kind of sense that wow this was
luxurious just to give you a sense of
how luxurious this hotel was um every
room came with a telephone and a
fireplace which is kind of like even
today is unheard of well telephones yes
but like a fireplace
um but if you and the bottom rooms were
like the best rooms and the further up
you go it's more of like the maids and
stuff or like the lesser
important people who stayed up there but
on the first floor we got to see one of
the suites and we saw the telephone in
there we saw the fireplace oh man it is
it is gorgeous and it doesn't even look
like a hotel room it looks like
someone's house i mean they obviously
had to be rich
they look like they're wealthy if you're
staying there and like we saw a replica
of a bathroom too the bathroom even
looks super nice yeah i mean i would
love to have a bathroom like that now
yeah it's a super nice bathroom so i
mean this is back in the late 1800s so
uh yeah they're definitely you
definitely had to be wealthy to stay
here living the life yeah
so the museum itself is very small but
each room does have a story to tell and
it gives you really great information
about
uh the hotel itself but also the history
of henry v plant
and also there's an exhibit right now
going on with uh booker t washington and
the black history so that's a great
exhibition to check out yeah and then
one of the great things about this
museum every sunday they have a little
play and that comes with the purchase of
a ticket which is the tick is only ten
dollars so it's great you get a free
play which we just watched yeah it was
for 30 minutes and um what was the name
of the play uh
person yeah so each week they change it
up they rotate i think they have like
four different characters that they do
and today's character was edith
roosevelt so teddy roosevelt's wife and
yeah they stayed here back in the late
1800s so she kind of basically told the
story of her visit here yeah and the
reason why she was here or teddy
roosevelt was here is because it was
from the spanish-american war uh which
happened in the late 1800s to free cuba
so teddy roosevelt was famous for being
here and staying here with his rough
riders i always love that thing yeah so
she's a referee yeah so she basically
came down to visit from new york to
basically see him one last time before
he went off to war again so um yeah i
didn't know that i was like home yeah so
the spanish-american war was a huge
thing here in tampa too it was like the
headquarters this tampa hotel so a lot
of soldiers stayed here a lot of the
guests and like the wives so it's a
significant part of history if you do
decide to visit there is one thing that
i think is really fun and interesting
there's an elevator which is not in the
museum it's right next to the museum
inside the school and it is the original
elevator that was built here and
supposedly it is still working today and
supposedly it is the oldest elevator in
florida it was actually the first
elevator in florida is what they say so
when we when we went to check it out
we're actually a little bit scared
walking in because we're like is this
thing gonna fall like there's like no
sign explaining anything it just talks
about the elevator when it was built and
that's it so we're like are we gonna go
in yeah we're a little bit worried about
walking in we're walking in like on
tiptoe it's very like
it's crazy how beautiful the elevator is
because you know elevators nowadays this
is like this boring silver box or
something when you walk into this
elevator it's huge it's really dark but
the
wood carvings are very very beautiful
yeah i think i said that was made out of
a cuban mahogany yeah
luxurious i mean i don't even think i've
ever been in a hotel that i mean an
elevator that pretty no it was really
gorgeous but creepy right now to go into
because
it's
i mean i'm sure it's fine but when you
walk in you just kind of want to you get
this feeling like i need to be careful i
don't want to you were like it feels
like tower of terror it does it really
feels like tower of terror like it's
about to like drop
anyway it was really fun kind of going
in there and looking at it um because
it's the original and
supposedly it's still working so that's
really cool but yeah so we highly
recommend coming here if you want to
learn a little bit more about tampa this
is the place to come you get to learn
all about tampa and how it started how
henry v plant was the man who started
tampa florida the king the king of
florida
uh so
and plus you know the architecture the
um the park in front everything around
here is super beautiful so
yeah hope this review helped you out if
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for watching bye
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