Florida’s newly opened Belleview Inn built from the storied bones of Belleview Hotel

Charmless strip shopping lines many multi-lane highways, and resorts — such as Disney’s Grand Floridian — are often the only places attempting to recreate elements of the past.

Unless you look hard, Florida can seem to be a place without much history. Places dating to the 1950s are rare, and those near the Atlantic and Gulf coasts often are purchased as tear-downs for land on which to build a more modern house or business.

But on a recent trip to to the Florida city of Clearwater, I found myself immersed in the Gilded Age, ensconced in a place with its original heart-pine plank flooring, a curved Victorian-era grand staircase and Tiffany stained glass.

A Baby Grand player piano filled the lobby with old-time music that wafted up the staircase to provide an atmospheric backdrop to the wide second-floor hallway. Wide verandahs had tropical plants, overhead fans and comfy rockers.

My guest room had a fireplace, and its seven floor-to-ceiling windows gave me a view of the pool and the broad lawns of a croquet/bocce court. But its shades were drawn in the heat of the day.

It was August, and I’d come to check out the newly opened Belleview Inn, crafted from the grand 400,000-square-foot Hotel Belleview, built in 1897 in Belleair, Florida by railroad tycoon Henry Plant. The original Queen Anne-style hotel had 145 rooms, each with electric lights. They were tucked beneath peaked gables and overhanging roofs and surrounded by acres of land and Gulf of Mexico waters. Today’s Belleview Inn has just 35 rooms, less than a quarter of the number in the original hotel. But more than 80 percent of its features are original and were carefully preserved.

Plant, the founder of the Plant System of railroads and steamships, opened the southeastern United States to commerce and leisure travelers. He built his empire to include hotels that travelers could reach by rail to stay and enjoy the opulence of exotic furnishings, tea parties, dancing and golf.

The 511-room Tampa Bay Hotel, built by Plant in 1891 for $2.5 million, is now the Henry Plant Museum and part of the University of Tampa. The Hotel Belleview followed a few years later.

Plant lived only a short time before passing the hotel along to his only son, Morton, at his death in 1899. Morton Plant painted it white and changed the roof tiles to green, earning it the nickname of “White Queen on the Gulf.”

When its golf course opened in 1897, it was the first one in Florida, It was redesigned in 1915 by Donald J. Ross, and today it’s the private Belleview Country Club. The Hotel Belleview and its golf course became a popular destination for celebrities of the era, including baseball player Babe Ruth, whose golfing photos reside along one of the inn’s hallways.

Until the grand old Hotel Belleview closed in 2009 for more than a hundred years,. it had hosted the rich and famous such as Frank Sinatra, Dick Clark, Red “Mr.” Rogers and every living president, including Barack Obama.

In the years it was shuttered, the old Hotel Belleview fell into disrepair. The wooden floors became slanted and warped. Plaster began to deteriorate and fall. The halls grew dark and damp. A far cry from its former life, the White Queen time and time again dodged dates with the wrecking ball.

The restoration began in 2016, when the lobby and 35 rooms from the original structure were carved out of the larger building, lifted on rollers, rotated 270 degrees and moved the length of a football field. It became the largest structure in the world ever moved.

That move is chronicled in a video.

Sadly, the railroad systems that, at the turn of the last century, helped northerners discover Florida, are no more. But those interested in learning their history along with that of more than a century of the Hotel Belleview can take some time to settle in to Mort’s Reading Room, a dark, wood-and-leather sanctuary on the Inn’s first level. It is chock full of artifacts, albums and photos from the past.

Staffer Joseph Vars gives daily history walking tours of the Inn at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. He tells stories about the building and the people who brought it to life, such as the tale of Mort Plant becoming so smitten with his would-be wife, Maisie, that he paid for her divorce from her first husband.

Take some time to closely examine the paintings portraying the hotel and its events in the lobby and scattered around the Inn. They were done by local artist Christopher Still, who carefully researched each detail. Beneath each of the lobby paintings is a large magnifying glass to welcome a close examination of details explained in a numbered key also available there.

A complimentary picnic basket of freshly baked muffins, fruit and juices is delivered early every morning in front of each guest room door. A coffee maker is in each room. Guests also can stock up on beer, wine, small plates and snacks at Maisie’s Marketplace near the front desk.

Today’s Belleview Inn doesn’t have its own dining room. Guests must walk a short distance to the Belleview Country Club, where multiple fine dining options include the dark-wood 1897 Lounge, near the men’s locker room; the main dining room; the Belle Terrace; and the Sam Parks Lounge. Hotel guests also have access to golf at the private club.

Guests also are welcomed at the beachfront Sandpearl Resort, a sister property operated by the same Opal Management company in the nearby community of Clearwater Beach. Fine dining, free valet parking and access to its wide beach also are available to guests. Although most will bring a car, shuttle transportation can be arranged.

The Inn and the Country Club are at the center of the gated community of Belleview Place, with its condos and homes. Those living there also have use of Belleview Inn’s large swimming pool.