Ybor Factory Building
Encyclopedia
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The main factory and its surrounding support buildings cover an entire city block between 8th Avenue and 9th Avenues and 13th and 14th Streets in the Ybor City Historic District
Ybor City Historic District
The Ybor City Historic District pronounce] is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District located in Tampa, Florida...
section of the Ybor City neighborhood.
The factory was built in 1886 by Vicente Martinez-Ybor as he moved the production of his Príncipe de Gales ("Prince of Wales") cigar line from Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
to the new company town he founded just northeast of Tampa in 1885. The headquarters of Ybor's holding company was directly across 9th Ave. in the El Pasaje
El Pasaje
The El Pasaje is a historic site in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. It was originally built in 1886 to house the offices for Vicente Martinez Ybor's companies as he planned Ybor City and then ran his cigar factory and other businesses...
building, which was constructed at about the same time.
The three-story structure was the first brick cigar factory in Tampa and the largest cigar factory in the world at the time. Over the next few decades, skilled tabaqueros (cigar makers) would roll hundreds of millions of cigars on wooden workbenches set close together in the building's wide, sunlit rolling rooms.
After Ybor died in 1896, the building was owned by a succession of other cigar manufacturers and continued to be a productive cigar factory until after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when the industry (and Ybor City in general) entered a long period of decline.
Over the next few decades, the buildings were vacant, then were used as gallery and studio space for artists, then converted to a festival marketplace
Festival marketplace
A festival marketplace is a realization by James W. Rouse and the Rouse Company in the United States of an idea conceived by Benjamin C. Thompson of Benjamin Thompson and Associates for European style markets taking hold in the United States in an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US...
called Ybor Square in the mid-1970s. In 2002, the buildings were converted to office space with the exception of a franchise of the Spaghetti Warehouse
Spaghetti Warehouse
Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant geared towards families with 16 locations in 7 U.S. states. The chain started in 1972 in Dallas, Texas, and has since spread throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States. The location in Columbus, Ohio, which opened in 1978, is the...
restaurant, which is still located in the former tobacco storage warehouse.
In 2010, the entire complex was purchased by the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
, reportedly to consolidate a smaller location in Ybor City with another in West Tampa.
The Ybor Factory building was added to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on November 15, 1972.