The Henry B. Plant Museum (Plant Museum) is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa's campus, located at 401 West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa, Florida. Plant Hall was originally built by Henry B. Plant as the Tampa Bay Hotel; a 511-room resort-style hotel that opened on February 5, 1891, near the terminus of the Plant System rail line, also forged and owned by Plant. The Plant Museum's exhibits focus on historical Gilded Age tourism in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, the elite lifestyle of the hotel's guests, and the Tampa Bay Hotel's use during the Spanish–American War. As such, the Plant Museum is set up in the Historic House Museum style. Exhibits display artifacts in a manner that reflects the original placement and usage within the related historic building.

The Tampa Bay Hotel was designed by architect J.A. Wood, who also designed the Old Hillsborough County Courthouse in 1892 in Tampa, Florida, as well as the Oglethorpe Hotel and the Mahoney-McGarvey House in Brunswick, Georgia.

The Plant Museum is listed as an Accredited Museum and a Core Documents Verified Museum by the American Alliance of Museums.

On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects' Florida Chapter placed University of Tampa's Plant Hall on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.

The Henry B. Plant Museum through University of Tampa's Plant Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated as such on December 5, 1972 under the name of the Tampa Bay Hotel.

The Tampa Bay Hotel was built by railroad magnate Henry B. Plant between 1888 and 1891. The construction cost was over $3 million. The Tampa Bay Hotel was considered the premier hotel of the eight that Plant built to anchor his rail line. The hotel covers 6 acres (24,000 m2) and is a quarter-mile long. The Tampa Bay Hotel was equipped with the first elevator ever installed in Florida, and the elevator is still functional today, making it one of the oldest continually operational elevators in the nation.The 511 rooms and suites were the first in Florida to have electric lighting and telephones. Most rooms also included private bathrooms, complete with a full-size tub. Room Pricing 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 poured-concrete, steel-reinforced structure of the building was advertised as fireproof.

The grounds of the hotel spanned 150 acres (0.61 km2) and included a golf course, bowling alley, racetrack, casino and an indoor heated swimming pool. In all, 21 buildings could be found on the hotel's grounds. The Moorish Revival architectural theme was selected by Plant for its exotic European appeal to the widely traveled Victorians who would be his primary customers. The hotel has six minarets, four cupolas, and three domes spanning five stories all trimmed in ornate Victorian Gingerbread.In the early 1990s, all were restored to their original stainless steel state.

From 1889 to 1891 Plant scoured Europe collecting lavish objects to decorate the hotel in grandeur. Art arrived "by the trainload". Despite the immense size of the hotel, the purchases Plant made overflowed the space and the surplus had to be disposed of at auction. Much of the original art and furnishings have been removed, but the wing in Plant Hall conserved as the Henry B. Plant Museum contains "a bewildering assortment of rococo bronzes, furniture, clocks, tapestries, paintings, and vases, one vase being a gift from the Emperor of Japan.

During the Tampa Bay Hotel's operating period from 1891 to 1930, it housed thousands of guests, including hundreds of celebrities and political figures. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Plant convinced the United States military to use his hotel as a base of operations. Generals and high-ranking officers stayed in the hotel to plan invasion strategies, while enlisted men encamped on the hotel's acreage. Colonel Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were also stationed at the hotel during this time. Roosevelt retained a suite and during the day led his men in battle exercises on the grounds. Other notable visitors of the Tampa Bay Hotel included Sarah Bernhardt, Clara Barton, Stephen Crane, the Queen of the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales, Winston Churchill, and Ignacy Paderewski. Babe Ruth was also a guest of the hotel during its latter days and signed his first baseball contract in the Grand Dining Room. In 1919, Ruth hit his longest home run during a spring training game at Plant Field, adjacent to the hotel.

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