Henry B. Plant Museum — Attraction in Tampa

When strolling along the University of Tampa campus, this museum is tucked along the riverwalk and the park. The architecture and overall scheme of this museum is gorgeous and looks like an authentic representation of the early 1900s time period. It really takes you back in time when just walking around the outside.

When coming in, they offer discounts for students and children, however for adults, it's 10$ per person. No food or drinks, I had to surrender my empty cup at the front. The museum itself is incredibly small, as you can only go in and explore the first level while the rest of the old hotel is blocked off. It's really just one main hallway with several rooms that showcase the time period, furniture, food and historic moments as well as visitors that used to frequent this area at the time.

They offer a audio tour, which I would recommend, because it'll help force you to slow your pace and takes you longer to go through the entire museum. I came during the setup of the Christmas/Holiday decor, which gave the museum an extra lavish touch.

I feel for how small the museum is, $10 is a steep price and should be more around the $5 ballpark.When leaving, I went to collect my empty tumbler and was stopped by the staff and asked if I had paid. When I said "yes" their immediate response was "you didn't pay! who did you pay?". I explained twice that I paid a younger woman at the front at the time, who wasn't standing there when we left. It was really ridiculous how accusatory and rude they were being when I was clearly wearing the "I paid" sticker on my shirt and went to retrieve my cup. It's not my fault if they didn't see us come in or keep tabs of who was running the front desk at all times. Their unprofessionalism was very appauling. The younger girl however, was great and kind. Had I not paid, I obviously, wouldn't have had to pick up my cup or worn an admissions sticker.

Beautiful museum, rude staff, overpriced admission ticket for such a small walk through. Worth a visit once at least, but will not...

The Henry B Plant museum is part of the University of Tampa - if you visit be prepared to navigate a large campus. Aside from handicap parking, visitor parking is “5” minutes (probs felt like 7) away in the Thomas Parking lot. We had a lot of difficulty finding the parking because it was not intuitively close to the museum, and then if you enter the wrong entrance to the lot you cannot access the first floor/visitor lot. Enter from N. Blvd. Technically the website says this (if you search the museum parking because the website itself doesn’t have a clear FAQ section or how to visit them). We ended up calling campus security as recommended on the website to get directions. If it is going to rain - bring an umbrella as there is NOT covered walkways to the museum. The museum entrance is also on the opposite side of the building from the direction you’ll be coming if you park in the recommended lot. We were redirected from trying to enter at the door in the student hall. Once inside they do ask that all bags be worn on the front vs a backpack purse (larger bags or if a person wants to keep their bag up front they can). It is 1 floor of roughly about 10 rooms, some of which are a tight squeeze. They do have an audio guide that came with a ticket purchase but not all the items are labeled and the audio guide doesn’t touch on all the major pieces (for example a general room plaque said something about a cabinet that Mary Queen of Scotts may have looked on but it wasn’t labeled and it wasn’t in that rooms audio guide). There is a gift shop as well and a 14 minute video that plays on a loop (with 3 minutes in between) that gives an overview of the former hotel and owners. It was interesting to see, I wish there were more labels within the museum but the biggest thing was we spent a long time trying to just figure out parking and directions, and I think that they could have made it far more clear on the website and then also...

On 3.17.22 I brought my dear friend to the museum after enjoying brunch at the Oxford Exchange, for a short tour of a local favorite place. I was completely taken aback by the docents' attitudes and behavior; I am still aghast. We walked into a couple of rooms, and then were approached by one of the ladies who requested that my friend (in the picture) remove her backpack. This was after 10 minutes of walking through some of the exhibits. My friend was expecting a call and told the docent as much (her phone was in her backpack purse). The docent insisted that she remove her backpack and store it at the lobby desk. Mind you, her backpack was a Vera Bradley purse. Other patrons had similar bags and were not required to put them away; there was NO signage to indicate this rule. As we decided to leave, the other docent was actually calling security over the issue. We asked to speak to the director who offered a quasi-apology by stating this indeed is a requirement and the museum inerrantly did not have signage. However, patrons continued to enter without having to leave their handbags at the door. Clearly, my dear friend was being profiled. She is an American who is entitled to a judgement-free presence. The whole incident was undoubtedly indicative of a culture of suspect and negative perception that inalienable rights were being denied. I am very discouraged that people are carrying these assumptions, and, moreover, using this assumption to inflict a power over another based simply on skin color. There was no other reason for the docent to approach us. We paid. We toured quietly. We...