Ybor Cigar Factory, 1916 North Fourteenth Street, Tampa, Hillsborough County, FL
Significance: The original building was the first brick cigar factory constructed in Tampa in 1886. Vincent Martinez Ybor, its founder, constructed a model city surrounding the factory where the cigar workers resided. The factory was the focal point for the cigar workers who lived in the area called Ybor City. Ybor's building was the largest hand-rolled cigar complex which was typical of a distinct industry and era in the history of Florida. It was unique because it brought industrialization to a predominantly agrarian town. Large numbers of Latinos who worked in the factory were introduced into a white Anglo-Saxon based society. The success of the factory stimulated other cigar industries to move to Tampa, making Ybor City the cigar capital of the United States by 1900. In less than twenty years Tampa changed from a small port town to a thriving city. From the steps of the main factory building, Jose Marti, a Cuban patriot and martyr, rallied support for Cuban independence. After the Spanish-American War, these steps were removed to Cuba to become a National Shrine.
