From Swampland to Sophistication: How H. B. Plant’s Tampa Bay Hotel Set the Foundation for a Thriving City

Abstract

This essay examines the various ways in which the Tampa Bay Hotel and the entrepreneur who built it, Henry B. Plant, initiated the transformation of Tampa, Florida into a global city. Drawing upon primary sources and scholarly research, the paper tracks how the luxury hotel led to improvement of the city’s infrastructure and technology, economic development, population growth, and greater notoriety throughout the world. The impact that Plant and his hotel have had on the city can still be seen today through Tampa’s diverse cultural identity and ongoing growth and development.