Facts about Tampa Bay hotels, from a shrunken head to speakeasies

TAMPA, Fla. — Want to go on a road trip across Florida? How about traveling back in time to explore the state’s history?

Local author and journalist Kristen Hare does both in "Hotels, Motels & Inns of Florida: Historic and Beloved Places to Stay in the Sunshine State."

Hare spent the past two years exploring the state, digging through shoeboxes of old photos and scouring digital archives. Her journey to chronicle 60 special places led her to swank palaces, beachside motels and quirky midcentury inns. She even detoured to Cassadaga, the "psychic capital of the world."

Each entry includes a travel tip for nearby attractions to explore. Because the book is organized by time periods, rather than geography, it also functions as a history lesson on the state’s eras.

"You start to really get a sense of how Florida became Florida," Hare said. "And how every different decade and the forces that were happening then — whether that’s the Great Depression or the postwar economy, or segregation in the Jim Crow era — created these spots that made Florida what it is today."

There’s a special section highlighting Black-owned properties and the fabulous guests who once stayed at them. Hare also penned a chapter dedicated to "modern marvels" too kooky to leave out. Yes, that includes pyramid vacation homes in Fort Myers and that guitar-shaped Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

Hare won’t tell you where to book your next stay, and said her project is not intended to replace Yelp. Instead, she focused on uncovering secrets and delights.

Here are nine of our favorite facts she dug up.

1. Treasure Island’s Thunderbird Beach Resort once lured guests with a shrunken head

The Thunderbird Beach Resort on Treasure Island has long found creative ways to attract beachgoers. Just how long, you may ask?

Hare stumbled on this classified advertisement in a 1959 issue of the then-St. Petersburg Times:

"Found a real shrunken head. Come and see it at the Headhunter’s Lounge at the Thunderbird Motel," it read. Anything to bring in the tourists!

2. This St. Pete Beach motel is the final resting place for one special guest

The story behind the beachfront Keystone Motel in Pass-A-Grille is one of several that inspired Hare to write her book.

In 2020, Hare penned a Tampa Bay Times obituary for the motel’s former owner — the 99-year-old Mary Falkenstein, also known as Nanny. Her descendants still run the motel and had stories to share.

"There are people who come back every year, bring their children, bring their grandchildren, and always ask for the same room," Hare said. "These places are so special that when one man passed away, his family brought his ashes when they came back. They’re in one of the planters — the window boxes — looking out over the Gulf."

3. The Plant City house where Jackie Robinson stayed is now a museum

Black professionals and baseball players once stayed at the Bing Rooming House, which opened in 1928 in the heart of Plant City’s African American business district. Famous guests included Negro American League players like Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige.

The house was run by teacher Janie Wheeler Bing. Her grandson — James "Jimmy" Washington — pushed to preserve the home in 1995. Today, Black history lives on at the Bing Rooming House Museum.

4. This hotel at Tampa International Airport used to have a revolving restaurant

In 1973, travelers heading through Tampa International Airport’s hotel had a new option if they wanted to stay and dine in style: The Host International Hotel. Amenities included soundproofed rooms and a swimming pool that looked down on the airfield below, according to the airport’s website.

The building also featured a revolving restaurant that offered a 360-degree view — The View at CK’s. The rotating eatery closed in 2013, but the hotel lives on under Marriott. Hare features several vintage photographs of the space in her book.

5. Once apartments in St. Petersburg, this spot hosted several celebs

Caregivers of vintage hotels love to share stories about ghost sightings, especially around spooky season. While Hare mostly stayed away from those kinds of tales in her book, she did share tidbits about real guests — including celebrities.

For example: The Crystal Bay Hotel in St. Pete, which opened in 1916 as the Sunset Apartment Hotel, is rumored to have hosted Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

6. This Belleair hotel was run by a famous nepo baby

Florida history buffs are familiar with Henry Plant, the railroad tycoon responsible for several stunning hotels around the state. His son Morton Plant took over operations at his Hotel Belleview. The property is located in Belleair, a Pinellas town in between Clearwater and Largo. Over the years, the hotel would be called the Belleview-Biltmore and then the Belleview Inn.

Fun fact: Morton once traded Pierre Cartier a New York City mansion for a pearl necklace to give to his wife, Maisie. Visitors can check out some other antiques from the building’s past inside Morton’s Reading Room.

7. This Pinellas County spa was thought to contain the fountain of youth

The Safety Harbor Resort and Spa was built on top of Espiritu Santo Springs, and the healing waters have soothed travelers for centuries. Hare writes that when Hernando de Soto showed up on this piece of Tocobaga land in 1539, he believed he’d stumbled onto the fountain of youth. A sanitarium and several hotels would eventually follow.

These days, you can see some of the bubbling spring water through cutouts of the floor in the spa’s nail salon.

8. This shape-shifting resort in Dunedin has a musical history

Since opening in the 1920s, the Fenway Hotel in Dunedin has been many things: the first radio station in Pinellas County, a winter getaway destination, a speakeasy, the campus of Trinity Bible College and then Schiller International University. And now, once again, it’s a grand hotel. The Fenway’s current form, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, has a popular rooftop bar.

"What I have loved about this, what I didn’t expect, was all of the different lives that these places lived," Hare said.

9. Before Instagram, this stirred another kind of FOMO

Do you think scrolling through your social media feed on a Sunday morning is bad? Hare writes that vintage postcards were the original source of FOMO, or "fear of missing out."

"Imagine freezing in some northern state and getting a ‘Greetings From’ postcard from your snooty sister in the sun," Hare writes in the book’s introduction. "It’s delicious."

Not only is her book filled with scans of postcards that she sourced along her travels, Hare printed re-creations of classic Florida postcards that she found in the public domain. Email oldfloridahotels@gmail.com and she’ll do her best to mail you one.