University of Tampa - Moroccan Yearbook (Tampa, FL)

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into the south wing; bedrooms became offices; halls turned into bedrooms. The enormous structure was made to house laboratories, dormitories, all the departments of a modern uni- versity — under one roof. Plant's dining room with its huge dome, its arches on fluted pillars, became a library of 50.000 volumes. His writing room became a reception room with murals of scenes from “The Yearling. ” The students loved it, although the glories of the '90’s had given way to sagged ceil- ings. cracked window panes and the crying need inside and out for a coat of fresh paint. Esmeralda still leaned over her little goat at the main entrance. A few paintings still hung where Mrs. Plant had placed them. And the general atmosphere of the six-acre building itself still held much of the same mystic appeal that characterized its colorful past. As late as 1946 the university had 195 students. Three years later under President Dr. Ell- wood C. Nance, it had nearly 1,500 students, including 660 veterans. During World War II Dr. Nance trained 8,000 Protestant, Catholic and Jewish chaplains in the U.S. Army Chaplain’s school at Harvard. Before that, he had served as pastor of the First Christian Church of Tampa. His book Faith of Our Fighters won acclaim in military circles, churches and in the media Auer V.E. Day, he began pouring his energies into the University of Tampa. He enlisted the help of students and began hammering, painting and repair- ing in the dilapidated building. He roused civic clubs and churches, university alumni, and his own friends into raising $65,000 for new furnishings and improvements. He traveled the nation giving speeches, sell-

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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

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