Discover Tampa
Tampa's cigar-making history can be read in more than its factory buildings. Ybor City developed around manufacturing and the people who sustained it: Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers, their social clubs, shops and homes. Vicente Martinez Ybor's factory moved from Key West in 1886, following the planning of a company-town development the previous year. The district's architecture records an industrial community, not simply a decorative entertainment setting.
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The Ybor City Museum State Park offers a useful example of the businesses around the factories. The Ferlita family began baking in 1896. After a fire, they rebuilt their bakery in 1923 and continued operating until 1973. Preserved ovens connect the museum building to the everyday production of food for the surrounding community.
The state park's history also records the cigar industry's decline as machinery, cigarettes and the Depression changed the market. Tampa's broader development did not depend on that industry alone. The city served as an embarkation point during the Spanish-American War, and a scheduled airboat service connected it with St. Petersburg in 1914.
These connections place Ybor within a wider port and transportation city. Factory architecture, a neighborhood bakery and movement across the bay each reveal a different part of how Tampa worked.
Sources
- City of Tampa: Historic Ybor: https://www.tampa.gov/neighborhoods/historic-ybor
- Florida State Parks: Ybor City Museum History: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/ybor-city-museum-state-park/history
- City of Tampa: Tampa History: https://www.tampa.gov/info/tampa-history
