Some Tampa History

Cigar factories used to number close to 200 in Tampa. Today as few as 20 of the buildings remain and only one still produces cigars. 

Cigar making came to Key West in the late 1800's from Cuba. In 1885 most of the Key West cigar makers, led by Vicente Martinez Ybor relocated to Tampa. The combination of H.B. Plant's west coast railroad, a large sea port, and a warm and humid climate made the then small city of Tampa an ideal location. About 5,000 homes went up around the factories and Ybor City was born.

El Lector...he would read to the workers as they rolled cigars

Many of the factories today are boarded up like this one. As a boy I used to sit outside a factory like this while my Father, who was a city policeman, worked extra shifts in the evenings watching the parking lot and keeping an eye on the workers when they went to their cars around 11pm. We would listen to the Braves on WSUN. This is where I learned to love Cuban food. A truck would come by at suppertime to sell food to the workers and we could get our supper there some nights. Days gone by......