Plant's Southern Empire
After the Civil War, Henry Plant bought several small bankrupt rail companies serving the South and put them together to form the Plant System of Railways. A definite challenge was standardizing track, stations and equipment. Plant made the rail gauge uniform so switching track at the end of each line was no longer necessary, ensuring less cumbersome travel. The Plant System provided service from Charleston, SC, through Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Connections were also provided to New York and the entire northeast.Plant recognized that his railroad would be a greater success if combined with steamship and steamboat service. In 1886, the Plant Steamship Line was organized. The steamship line went from Port Tampa to Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica and New Orleans during the winter Tampa Bay Hotel season. In the summer season, he used the steamships for service between Boston, New York and Nova Scotia.
Shortly afterwards, he began to build hotels at strategic locations along his rail lines in Florida. The Tampa Bay Hotel was his premiere hotel. In all, he had eight hotels in west Florida rounding out The Plant System:
The Ocala House - Ocala
The Seminole - Winter Park
Hotel Kissimmee - Kissimmee
The Inn at Port Tampa - Tampa
The Tampa Bay Hotel - Tampa
The Hotel Belleview - Belleair*
The Hotel Punta Gorda - Punta Gorda
The Fort Myers Hotel - Fort Myers
* The Hotel Belleview is the only hotel of the Plant System that is still operational. Now, the Belleview Biltmore, it is a picturesque Victorian hotel on the Intracoastal Waterway.
The following booklets from the Museum Store offer additional information:
