The workers of Heinz had a few breaks during a day; they also could take a bath after a working shift. Henry Plant built the port, and eventually brought the railroads. Plant Park, Tampa’s first public park, continues to offer a relaxing refuge along the Hillsborough River.
To schedule a small group tour of the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science, please email holly.baker @ myfloridahistory.org, or call 321-632-1830. He opened the Waycross Short Line in 1881, a short cut between Waycross, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, taking the first steps toward opening the state. This line of business, hitherto neglected, he organized effectively. How Did John D. Rockefeller Treat His Workers? Plant’s international transportation empire was taking shape. The next year, after it became necessary for his wife to again travel south for her health, he requested and obtained the responsibility for all Adams Express Company's interests in the territory south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers. When the boy was six, his father and younger sister died of typhus. Convinced of the eventual economic revival of the South, he bought at foreclosure sales in 1879 and 1880 the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad and the Charleston and Savannah Railroad.
(1966). In 1898, this hotel gained international fame as the stateside military headquarters for the U.S. invasion force during the Spanish–American War. This page was last edited on 23 August 2020, at 01:41. He is a builder – a creator. Cities such as Plant City, Sanford, Auburndale, Trilby, and Port Tampa attribute their development to Henry Plant. Plant’s eight hotels throughout western Florida provided tourists with luxury accommodations in a tropical haven. The railroads of the South had been practically ruined and many railroads went bankrupt in the depression of 1873. Henry J. Heinz was shocked by this case, so he immediately started to improve working conditions on his factories. Henry Bradley Plant: The nineteenth century “King of Florida.” Tampa, FL: Henry Plant Museum. Today, the Tampa Bay Hotel, which houses the Henry Plant Museum, and the Hotel Belleview near Clearwater still stand.
He built luxury hotels along his train route, stimulating tourism.
When Henry B. He is a builder – a creator. After some discussion with French authorities, an unusual resolution was reached as he was issued a French passport declaring him a U.S. citizen residing in Georgia which allowed him to travel extensively across Europe and later re-enter the United States when he returned to New York by way of Canada. With these as a nucleus he began building along the southern Atlantic seaboard a transportation system that twenty years later included fourteen railway companies with 2,100 miles of track, several steamship lines, and a number of important hotels. Laurys Station, PA: Garrigues House. “He started buying up bankrupt railroad lines after the Civil War, and eventually they worked themselves down to the middle of Florida and then crossed over to the west coast and went all the way down to Fort Myers.”. In 1879 he purchased, with others, the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad of Georgia, and later reorganized the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad, of which he became president. He married Ellen Elizabeth Blackstone in 1842. He eventually secured a position in the Adams Express Company’s New York office. |
In that same year, Plant lost his wife Ellen.
To promote passenger traffic, Plant built the large Tampa Bay Hotel resort along his rail line through Tampa and several smaller hotels further south, starting the area's tourist industry. Turner, G.M., & Bramson, S.H. With Southern stockholders of the company he organized in 1861 the Southern Express Company, a Georgia corporation, and named himself president.
(1958). Because he had built a reputation for providing reliable and efficient express service, President Davis's cabinet made Plant's company the agent for the Confederacy in collecting tariffs and transferring funds. All rights reserved.
After a few years he was put in charge of the old York office of the company. The amount was almost twice the rate other car factories paid their workers. Plant Biography The significant contributions to the development of Florida and Tampa Bay are why Success magazine dubbed Henry Plant “the King of Florida” in 1898. Built at a cost of $3 million, it was said to be an attempt to compete with fellow industrialist Henry M. Flagler, who was developing Florida's east coast. Georgians in profile: 261-276.
In 1887, Plant built the PICO Hotel in Sanford for the accommodation of his railroad and steamship passengers to Central Florida. Today, much of the Amtrak and CSX rail lines that run through Tampa are formerly Plant System rail beds. Henry B. One is the former Tampa Bay Hotel (opened in 1891) that now houses the Henry B. "Henry Bradley Plant." In this situation, he found his opportunity. January - November: $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $7 for students and $5 for children 4 - 12 years. With Tampa Bay the hub of Plant’s transportation system, in 1891 he constructed the huge and luxurious Tampa Bay Hotel. Jesup, and W.T.
The Plant system of railroads helped to create modern Florida. The opulent Tampa Bay Hotel continued operating even after Plant’s death. A whole State blossoms at the touch of his magic wand."
Henry Bradley Plant (October 27, 1819 – June 23, 1899), was a businessman, entrepreneur, investor involved with many transportation interests and projects, mostly railroads, in the southeastern United States. He was born in October, 1819, at Branford, Connecticut, and entered the railroad service in 1844, serving as express messenger on the Hartford and New Haven Railroad until 1853, during which time he had entire charge of the express business of that road. At the age of six, he lost his father and younger sister to typhus fever and was raised by his mother and grandmother. Several years later his mother married again and took him to live first at Martinsburg, N.Y., and later at New Haven, Conn., where he attended a private school. In 1882 he organized, with the assistance of Northern capitalists (among whom were M. K. Jesup, W. T. Walters, and Henry Morrison Flagler, who himself would be instrumental in the development of Florida's east coast) the Plant Investment Company, a holding company for the joint management of the various properties under his control. Plant is particularly known for connecting the previously isolated Tampa Bay area and southwest Florida to the nation's railroad system and establishing regular steamship service between Tampa, Cuba, and Key West, helping to spark tremendous population and economic growth in the region. Plant’s network of railroads and steamships enticed many industries to Tampa, most notably Vicente Martinez Ybor’s cigar industry. Plant was born in 1819, Florida was still under Spanish control. When in France, he was informed that his Confederate passport was not valid.
Turkel, S. (2000). He built a golf course, tennis courts, boathouse, and horse racing track for the amusement of his guests. Streets in Tampa and Port Tampa bear the names of Plant family members and Plant System officers.
Photographs from the late 1800s and early 1900s show wealthy northerners sitting on the porch enjoying the shade. Similarly, Henry Plant linked central and west Florida to the rest of the country with his railway.
The Plant system of railroads, steamships and hotels.
In his will he attempted to prevent the partition of his properties to the value of about $10,000,000 by forming a trust for the benefit of his grandson, Henry Plant II (born 1895), but the will was contested by his widow and son and declared invalid under the laws of the state of New York.
“I think the reason that Henry Plant doesn’t get quite as much recognition as Henry Flagler is that Henry Flagler’s personal money was in Palm Beach.”. He purchased and rebuilt, in 1880, the Savannah and Charleston Railroad, now Charleston and Savannah. Plant secured the U.S. mail contract for the West Indies route between Port Tampa, Key West, and Havana. Henry Plant: Pioneer empire builder. His most prized hotel was the Tampa Bay Hotel, a lavish resort built right across the Hillsborough River from Tampa. At the approach of the Civil War the directors of Adams Express, fearing the confiscation of their Southern properties, decided to sell them to Plant for his promissory note of $500,000.
Plant branded his network of railroads and steamship lines The Plant System. He was the descendant of John Plant who probably emigrated from England and settled at Hartford, Conn., about 1639.