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The downtown Tampa skyline as seen from the University of Tampa. In the foreground is the Henry B. Plant Memorial Fountain titled "Transportation." |
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to Plant Park is the Henry Bradley Plant Memorial Fountain, commissioned
by Margaret Plant in 1899 after her husband's death. The fountain was
carved from solid stone by George G. Barnard, and is the oldest public art
in the city of Tampa. It was completely conserved in 1995. The statue is titled "Transportation" and is situated above a circular fountain. It features a ship and a train, symbols of the Plant's transportation network that drove and shaped Florida’s growth and development during the last part of the 19th century. The bow of a ship is at the center with a giant eagle perched over it holding a treasure chest in his talons. On either side are sea creatures, a male and a female. The male holds a locomotive on his shoulder, representing the Plant system of railways, and the female holds a steam ship representing the Plant Steamship Company. Fish are on the sides below spouting water into the fountain. Mrs. Plant had the sculpture installed in front of the hotel. The fountain itself is thought to have been designed and constructed by hotel staff at her direction. The statue is reportedly the oldest piece of public art in Tampa. Located within a traffic circle between Plant Park and the building’s entrance, it provides a focal point and popular backdrop for photographs by tourists and students of the university and their friends and family. |
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A tribute to President John F. Kennedy is placed
facing Kennedy Blvd. near the entrance to the university, in Plant Park. Tampa
was his last stop before his fateful trip to Dallas/Ft. Worth. By Hampton Dunn, "Photouring Florida" Today, on that boulevard and at the entrance to the University of Tampa and Plant Park, stands a simple but attractive monument honoring the late President. It was in this park that Kennedy’s local campaign for Presidency was launched in the bandshell. A committee headed by Robert Florio financed the memorial with public subscription amounting to $18,000. Sculptor Bernhardt Zuckerman of New York and Italy did the high relief sculpture on marble slab, of white Carrara marble. The backdrop is of black pearl granite. The memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1966, by U.S. Congressman Sam Gibbons, a close friend of the President who escorted him throughout that last visit to Tampa. Gibbons called Kennedy a "martyr…to the new frontier of the human spirit."
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