The minarets of Plant Hall on the campus of the University of Tampa present a unique landmark that conjurs up visions of an earlier, more elegant time.  Plant Hall began life as The Tampa Bay Hotel which was built by railroad magnate Henry B. Plant at a cost of over 2.5 million dollars.  It was considered the premier hotel of the eight that Mr. Plant built to anchor his rail line.  The hotel itself covers 6 acres and is a quarter-mile long.  It was equipped with the first elevator ever installed in Florida.  The elevator is still in use today making it one of the oldest continually operational elevators in the nation.  The 511 rooms, some of which were actually suites consisting of between three-to-seven rooms, were the first in Florida to have electric lights and telephones. Most rooms also included private bathrooms, complete with a full-size tub. The price for a room ranged from $5.00 to $15.00 a night at a time when the average hotel in Tampa charged $1.25 to $2.00.  The building’s poured concrete steel reinforced structure was advertised as fireproof.  The entire building (under the title of Tampa Bay Hotel) is a U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated as such on December 5, 1972.