As Ybor City turns 140, we look back at Cigar City history

[JohnS]

As Ybor City turns 140, we look back at Cigar City history

Our favorite things about the one-of-a-kind, rooster-filled Tampa neighborhood. 

A family of chickens is seen on May 13, 2020, in Ybor City. The historic neighborhood dates back to the late 1800s. ©Luis Santana © Tampa Bay Times

By Gabrielle Calise - Times staff - Published Oct. 2

Ybor City, the land of cigars and chickens, turns 140 years old this weekend.

Well, depending on who you ask.

Some say the historic neighborhood dates back to 1886 — the year the first cigar factories opened. But Drew Newman, great-grandson of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. founder Julius Caeser Newman, will start celebrating the big anniversary on Oct. 5.

On that day in 1885, Vicente Martinez Ybor signed a contract to buy 40 acres of land from the Tampa Board of Trade (today, the Tampa Bay Chamber), excited to build a new cigar factory. Over 200 others came next, along with a melting pot of Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants who staffed them.

“It started with cigars, but Ybor City is so much more than that,” Newman said. “It’s the culture. It’s the food. It’s the architecture. It’s the diverse, multicultural community.” 

The past and present views of Seventh Avenue in Ybor City. On the left is an original photo made by the Burgert Brothers in 1925. [ USF Digital Archives and Times ]

In honor of the occasion, Newman is working on a year of celebratory events with dozens of businesses from Tampa’s Latin Quarter.

Here’s what makes Ybor City uniquely ours.

Very Florida food 

An undated La Gaceta newspaper clip shows Raymond Moré, left, working at La Segunda alongside his father, who was also named Raymond Moré. [ Courtesy of the Moré family ]

Visiting Seventh Avenue in Ybor City? Come hungry. Spanish bean soup, Cuban sandwiches served on locally-baked bread, the Columbia Restaurant’s Original 1905 Salad and "devil crab" are on the menu. Wash it down with café con leche, served with equally hot gossip.

Columbia Restaurant's signature 1905 Original Salad prepared for catering delivery on Monday, April 28. [ Times ]

Start your morning or end your meal with a sweet guava and cheese pastry. It’s not just a Florida culinary tradition. It’s the taste behind Ybor’s origin story.

Guava mogul Gavino Gutierrez first scoped out the area for a potential fruit empire in the late 1880s. While he did find plenty of local guava trees, he decided it would be a better fit for his cigar-slinging friend Ybor to use for a new factory. After one visit to Tampa, Ybor himself agreed.

A smoky legacy

In its earliest days, Vicente Martinez Ybor's cigar factory was often a hub of Cuban revolutionary activity. Cuban freedom fighter José Martí stands tall in the center with a bow tie and mustache on the steps with his supporters. [ TIMES ARCHIVE (1893) ]

A century ago, hundreds of cigar factories filled Ybor City and West Tampa. TheTampa Bay Times chronicled the location and status of Tampa’s 25 remaining factory buildings in 2023. They have become everything from college classrooms to apartment buildings.

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. operates the last operating cigar factory in Tampa. (In fact, it’s the last one in the country.) Inspired by the Times’ list, Newman is also on a mission to document Tampa’s cigar history.

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. was established in 1895 and is the oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in the United States. It was founded in Cleveland, Ohio by Julius Caeser Newman, a Hungarian immigrant. In 1954, the business relocated into this historic cigar factory, known as El Reloj, in Ybor City. The family business is now in its fourth generation. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]

Newman’s photo book, called “Cigar City: The Legacy of Tampa’s Founding Industry,” is coming out later this month. Filled with photographs by award-winning Florida documentary photographer Zack Wittman, the book chronicles what Tampa’s cigar factories have become. Newman said he hopes to host a book signing in the coming weeks.

A special newspaper

The late Roland Manteiga at his desk at La Gaceta. [ Tampa Tribune ]

Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers kept the cigar factories of Ybor City running. One of them decided to spread the city’s gossip — in three languages.

“More than a century ago, Victoriano Manteiga came here from Cuba for a job as a cigar factory lector, reading news and novels to workers as they rolled cigars,“ the Times wrote in 2022.“Then, in this town’s rich blend of immigrants, he started a newspaper.”

La Gaceta remains the country’s only trilingual newspaper, sharing the news each week in Spanish, English and Italian.

The business was passed down over the years to multiple Manteigas. It is still telling the story of Ybor City today.

“Without having Spanish, Italian and English, I think Tampa loses a little piece of its soul,” Patrick Manteiga, the current editor and publisher, said in 2022.

Colorful characters

An undated photo of Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, featuring the historic Ritz Theatre. [ Courtesy of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System ]

By day, you’ll run into roaming chickens and mafia-themed walking tours. Shop for pirate petticoats at family-run vintage store La France — or taxidermy art at Dysfunctional Grace.

By night, you’ll spot goths and ghouls on the way to the Castle and maybe the next Doechii performing at clubs and dive bars around town.

Ybor City continues to change. Developer Darryl Shaw is on a quest to add nearly 5,000 residences in a decade with his Gasworx project, leaving some residents wondering about the future of the city’s funky spirit. Others are excited — as long as it preserves the tradition of keeping Ybor weird.

Chickens roam the streets at Ybor City on Thursday, March 13, in Tampa. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]

Source: https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/history/2025/10/02/ybor-city-florida-food-tampa-history-cigar-city/

[Rhod]

First 5 or so years I lived in the Tampa Bay area we used to go to Ybor at least 1 night per weekend. It was absolute heaven then, in the early 2000s. I got old, had kids and haven't been back in many years. It's sad though to hear all of the reports of violent crimes that take place there regularly now in what used to be such a happy, carefree place.