JOHN STATUE PLACED IN DOWNTOWN TAMPA

But outside The Barrymore Hotel in downtown Tampa, John Lennon stands wearing a sport coat, long hair and his signature eyeglasses.

Steve and Cathy Ferguson walked around the corner at The Barrymore Hotel recently and spotted the life-size statue of Lennon. The couple and their friends couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take some selfies.

“We’ve been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but I’ve never seen just a random Beatles’ statue or one of the Beatles standing in front of a hotel somewhere,” said Steve Ferguson, who was visiting from Virginia with his wife before getting on a cruise ship.

“When you came around the corner and you saw it, it just drew you right to it,” Cathy Ferguson said. “It was almost like he was going to talk to you. That was the kind of feeling.’’

Most Tampa residents haven’t yet seen the statue of one of the world’s most celebrated musicians, though it has been displayed outside the hotel, across the street from the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, for about five months.

Those that do inevitably whip out the smartphone for a picture.

“Once it catches people’s eyes they are absolutely surprised when they see it there,” said Larry Collier Jr., general manager and director of hotel operations for H.I. Development, the Barrymore’s development and management company. “We’ve seen numerous people stop and take pictures with it. We’ve seen cars drive by, stop and turn around.’’

The statue’s trip to Tampa began about a year ago, when Robinson Callen, the founder of H.I. Development, saw that the statue was being sold at auction.