As one of the significant developments of early Tampa, the Tampa Bay Hotel began in the late 1800s when industrialist and railroad magnate Henry B Plant trained his sights on Central Florida with his railway, opening the area for development. He built the hotel for $2.5 million and appointed it with opulent furniture and decor. Its main draw was the extravagance of its Moorish Byzantine minarets, upper-crust activities, and pretentious size. People flocked to Florida on Plants railroads and steamships. At one point, the property took up 150 acres. Local legend has it that Theodore Roosevelt stayed there before he became president.

Plant died in 1899, and his family sold parts of the property. In 1905, the city of Tampa bought the hotel and its land for $125,000 and ran it until 1932. In August 1933, Tampa Junior College was transformed into a university and needed a home. The city leased the property to the renamed University of Tampa for 100 years. As the University has grown, it has begun expanding its footprint by purchasing more of the surrounding property that Plant once owned. The private university now offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate programs at an average cost of $31,000 per year after student aid.

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