Since its opening in 1897, the Belleview fulfilled its promise. Swiss-style gables, welcoming verandas and a gracious dining room drew guests on Plant's trains to what the local newspaper back then called ``Plant's New Paradise.''

Even today, perhaps facing demolition, the grand hotel purportedly reigns as the world's largest occupied wooden building.

Now called the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa, it has the distinction of being the oldest major resort in Florida and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

The hotel originally was supposed to be built in then-tiny St. Petersburg, near the present location of The Pier downtown. When negotiations broke down, Plant headed north to a wooded, sandy bluff in Belleair.

``There would have been nothing there. This was in 1894,'' said historian Ray Arsenault, a history professor at the University of South Florida. ``He thought he was giving St. Pete a big break, and they didn't appreciate it. They were naturally suspicious that an empire builder was inviting an elephant into the room.''

That elephant turned into a prized swan. By the time it was renamed the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in 1919, the classic resort was known as the ``White Queen of the Gulf'' for its powder white exterior and perch on sheltered Clearwater Harbor.

Through the years, athletes and politicians flocked there. Babe Ruth was a regular. He liked playing golf on the hotel's course and gambling in a casino down the road, said Sharon Delahanty, who gives tours of the hotel twice a week. Photos in the hotel show Ruth smiling with his golf buddies in the 1930s, including the legendary Gene Sarazen.

Other snapshots show the Duke of Windsor during a visit in 1954. Guests can now stay in the Duke of Windsor Suite, where he stayed. Other famous guests included baseball great Joe DiMaggio and Presidents Ford, Carter and the first President Bush, as well as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who visited in 1996.

``It was a state-of-the-art hotel, nothing but the best,'' Delahanty said. ``It had electric lights back then, unusual because it was kind of in the middle of nowhere.''

It was indeed elegant. Tiffany-style stained glass adorned the door of each room, as well as the ballroom ceiling. Along with extensive grounds, the hotel had two museums, one featuring stuffed animals, the other stuffed fish.

During the Depression, the hotel fell on hard times and went into receivership.

During World War II, it fell further when the federal government leased the hotel and used it as a barracks for 3,000 Army Air Forces troops training at MacDill and Drew airfields.

When rumors circulated that enemy submarines were spotted in the Intracoastal Waterway, hotel workers painted the resort's 1,700 windows black so no light would escape. One window in the hotel still has some black paint on it. The train tracks that ran right up to the hotel were even yanked up and sacrificed to the war effort as scrap metal.

Through the years, the resort has had eight owners. In 1990, the resort was sold to the Mido Development Co. Ltd. in Japan, which renamed it the Belleview Mido. In 1997, the Jetha family of Atlanta bought it for $16 million and gave it back its old name, Belleview Biltmore.

Even though it has been renovated and changed through the years, it still exudes its history. The stained glass ceiling in the dining room has been restored, as have the pine floors.

The ghost of Maisie Plant, Henry Plant's daughter-in-law, is even said to haunt its halls looking for her $1.2 million Cartier pearls. The Travel Channel featured the hotel's hauntings in October in an episode named ``Frightening Florida.''

``No one knows what happened to them,'' Delahanty said. ``Everyone speculates, `Where are those pearls?' ''

Reporter Karen Haymon Long can be reached at (813) 259-7618.