University of Tampa - Moroccan Yearbook (Tampa, FL)

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I More and more officers, staffs, military attaches, and later, wives, daughters and sweethearts swarmed through Tampa Bay Hotel’s 500 rooms scuffing up the fine Turkish rugs and carpets without a pang. Generals Shatter, Howard, Wade, Fitzhugh, Lee, Leonard Wood, Joe Wheeler, Captain Sigsbee of the ill-fated Maine, Miles Black. Theodore Roose- velt — all were there. And Ira Sankey, singing to the men. ' Clara Barton with her Red Cross volunteers. And laughing, weeping refugees from Cuba asking. “How can we dance till you make Havana free?” The pageantry drew titles, - warlords from afar. Thrillseekers offered sums for hotel suites so outrageous that many disgusted officers left their rooms to sleep with their troops outdoors. In one of his letters to his chil- dren, Theodore Roosevelt wrote: ... Mother stays at a big hotel about a mile from camp. There are nearly 30,000 troops here now besides the sailors from the warships on the bay. At night the corridors and piazzas are thronged with offi- cers of the Army and Navy; the older ones fought in the great Civil War a third of a century ago. and now they are all going to Cuba to war against the Spaniards. Most of them are in blue, but our rough riders are in brown. Our camp is on a great sand flat, sandy soil without a tree, though round about are pines and palmettos. It is very hot, indeed, but there are no mosquitos. . .. In the intense heat, the heavy dark uniforms gave way to white trousers and straw hats. Young wives and sweethearts plucked red and yellow tropical flowers screening the porches to fasten in their high-piled hair. Porch chairs rocked to the tinkling of gallons of iced tea, to the telling of scores of Far-Eastern adven- tures. 22

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been arranged and rearranged to house Tampa University's growing student population 1 and 2. Mrs. Plant's interior decorating has 3- The main lobby ot the Tampa Ray Hotel the completed extravaganza, the New York Journal of Com- merce and the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette referred to Aladdin and The Arabian Nights. Some 15,000 people received engraved invitations to the opening celebration: Tampa Bay Hotel will open for guests Saturday, January 31. 1891, and the opening ball will take place Thursday. Febru- ary 5, to which you are respect- fully invited. Flagler wired in answer to this. Where's Tampa Bay? Plant wired back, “Fol- low the crowd.” When Plant brought his rail- | road to Tampa in 1884, the little -------—---------------------------- town held 700 people and two or three shops. Now its popula- tion totaled 7,000, and there were several city blocks of bright brick shops. The fabulous Tampa Bay Hotel drew worldwide attention. Cabinet men, kings' ambassa- dors made their winter homes there. It was not unusual for 20 multimillionaires to gather at a single dinner. Celebrated artists appeared there frequently — to perform or to vacation — Sarah Bernhardt, Pavlowa, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Modjeska, Southern, Ada Rehan, Emma Calve, Sembrich, Nordica. Receptions and conventions kept the hotel filled for years; then rival hotels sprang up nearby. Friends joked about Plant’s Folly when half the suites stayed empty. He would answer silently with a gallant wave of his hand. Then in 1898, when the destruction of the U S. battle- ship Maine touched off the war with Spain, Tampa became a natural port of embarkation of troops to Cuba. American offi- cers, expecting to trudge through alligator swamps and rattlesnake hideouts, found themselves basking instead in a sumptuous palace in a jewel- like setting while waiting for the ships that would take them to Cuba. 21

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I. and 2. Fletcher Lounge was and still is used for entertaining guests. 3. A view of the lotel porch 4. Years later, used as a snack bar. iinniHlii The scene would have resem- bled a lawn party on an old Southern plantation except for the pall of constant military maneuvers. Attaches from Eng- land, Russia, Germany, France and Japan turned out to watch the skirmish drills. The officers grew more and more impatient as time went by. Major-generals paced the long first floor hall between rows of potted palms. One was overheard remarking, Can’t anybody handle all these men and munitions? I d call them spook ships causing this delay. They can’t be real! At last the so-called lucky” ones embarked for Cuba. Thirty-six vessels and a convoy of warships steamed down the bay, flags flying, 16,000 men singing and cheering, straining to get to Cuba to get the job done. In 1899 Plant died at age 80, and six years later the city of Tampa bought the hotel, fur- nishings and grounds, the adjoining Plant field and outly- ing acres of the Plant estate for $140,000 — far less than the value of the hotel furnishings alone. During the economic depres- sion following the stock market crash of 1929, the hotel proved too huge a white elephant for the city to keep up. But it was too magnificent a landmark to tear down. So the building was left unattended, its elegant stat- uary gathering dust and mildew in shadowy stillness. Then in 1933 it was re- opened when the city gave a 99-year lease at the rate of $1 per year to the two-year-old University of Tampa. The Uni- versity had been founded as a junior college for depression- affected local students unable to afford the expense of contin- uing their education away from home. The college had out- grown its temporary quarters at Hillsborough high school. Museum pieces were shoved 23