Ybor City, FL
Ybor City, Florida, developed in the 1880s around the cigar industry, led by manufacturer Vicente Martínez Ybor. Factories drew workers from Cuba and Spain, while Italian, Jewish, and other immigrants helped build a community of shops, homes, restaurants, and social clubs. Incorporated into Tampa in 1887, Ybor City grew into a major cigar-manufacturing center whose identity reflected the languages, skills, and traditions of its residents.
The cigar industry shaped more than the neighborhood’s economy. Immigrant mutual aid societies provided education, medical care, and places to gather, while support for Cuban independence connected local life with events across the Caribbean. Today, former factories, workers’ cottages, club buildings, and the commercial streets along Seventh Avenue preserve this history. Ybor City’s distinctive character continues to reflect the industrial ambition and immigrant communities that helped transform Tampa.
Recent Posts
La Faraona Cigar Factory
On Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, La Faraona Cigar Factory connects the neighborhood’s manufacturing heritage with the work of a modern family business. Its founder, Odelma Matos, brought experience in Cuban cigar making to a district whose identity had been shaped by earlier generations of immigrant tobacco workers. Matos grew up in a family of […]
Molly Ferrara
Molly Ferrara’s historical marker recognizes a woman whose work connected business ownership with public service. Born Molly Antinori in 1905, she was a Ybor City native and the daughter of Sicilian immigrants. In 1937, Ferrara founded Columbia Music and Appliances. She operated the business for more than forty years, establishing a lasting commercial presence during […]
Centro Español
The red-brick Centro Español clubhouse on Seventh Avenue represents an important part of Ybor City’s immigrant history. Established in 1891, the Spanish association brought people together to preserve their culture and provide practical support as they built lives in Florida. Mutual aid meant sharing resources to meet needs that individual families could struggle to manage […]
E. H. Steinberg Building
At 1611 East Seventh Avenue, the E. H. Steinberg Building preserves the name of a Jewish merchant whose influence extended beyond his storefront. Edward H. Steinberg operated a dry goods business in Ybor City, serving a neighborhood whose cigar factories brought together people from different countries and traditions. Jewish immigrant merchants helped develop Seventh Avenue […]
Tampa’s First Cigar Factory
On April 13, 1886, workers at the Sanchez y Haya cigar factory rolled the first cigars made in Tampa using “clear Havana” tobacco. The factory’s opening marked an early milestone in the development of Ybor City, where cigar manufacturing would transform the economy and character of the surrounding area. Owned by Ignacio Haya and Serafín […]
Roland Manteiga
A bronze figure leaning against a brick wall, absorbed in a newspaper, commemorates Roland Manteiga’s place in Tampa’s public life. As editor and publisher of La Gaceta, he connected the city’s immigrant communities with the political decisions shaping their future. The newspaper began in 1922, founded by his father, Victoriano Manteiga, a former cigar-factory lector. […]
