Ybor City: How a Cigar Town Became Tampa's Cultural Heart

Walk down Seventh Avenue at twilight and you'll see the brick streets that made Tampa. Ybor City — pronounced EE-bor — was founded in 1885 when Cuban cigar magnate Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his Key West factory north and built a company town around it. Within a generation, Tampa was the cigar capital of the world.

The factories that built a neighborhood

At its peak, Ybor was home to more than 200 cigar factories employing thousands of skilled rollers — Cuban, Spanish, Italian, and Afro-Cuban workers who lived in the casita-style shotgun houses still scattered through the district. Many of those factories are now lofts, breweries, or event spaces; the brick structures themselves are preserved as part of the Ybor City National Historic Landmark District, designated by the Department of the Interior in 1990.

The mutual aid clubs

Ybor's most distinctive institution is the network of centros — Cuban, Spanish, and Italian mutual aid societies that pooled member dues to provide healthcare, life insurance, and entertainment when the city wouldn't. The Centro Asturiano building on Nebraska Avenue is still in use; the Cuban Club is still hosting weddings; the Italian Club is still serving members. The model was decades ahead of its time.

What's there today

Modern Ybor is a mix of restaurants, bars, music venues, and creative offices. The Columbia Restaurant — Florida's oldest, opened in 1905 — still serves the same Spanish-Cuban menu in tile-covered dining rooms a block from where it started. The TECO Line streetcar runs free trips between Ybor and downtown, the only operating streetcar in Tampa.

Visiting

Walk Seventh Avenue between 14th and 22nd Streets for the densest concentration of historic blocks. Park in the Centennial Park lot or the Ybor City State Museum lot at 9th Avenue and 19th Street; both are within easy walking distance of the main strip.