I didn’t have a Sanchez & Haya post as part of my original series. After researching my previous articles a bit more and verifying facts, I felt this company needed its own story.
History
Sanchez & Haya were the first manufacturers of Clear Havana cigars in Ybor City. They began operations on April 13, 1886. In today’s terms “Clear Havana” would be equivalent to “Havana Puro”.
Their first factory, a 2 1/2 story wooden structure was built in 1885. It no longer exists and was most likely destroyed in a fire. I cannot find any definitive information as to a date of destruction.
After the original factory burned, Sanchez & Haya moved around to one or two other buildings until settling into the Gonzalez, Fisher / Gradiaz, Annis / Wengler and Mandell building. The company operated out of this building until 1934 when Wengler and Mandell acquired them.
Mystery factory
The gallery below displays two factory photographs that I am having trouble reconciling. The sign at the bottom belongs to the current U-Haul tenant of the Gradiaz, Annis / Wengler and Mandell building above and to the right. The sign accurately mentions three of the many cigar companies that occupied the space over the years. The one thing that is a little misleading is that the building is not Factory No. 1.
The black and white photo on the left depicts the “Haya” factory building. I’ve seen it dated anywhere between 1921 through 1932. It’s almost always lumped in with the building that is now occupied by U-Haul. Many times, it also has the same address. What I cannot reconcile are the structures themselves.
The building are very similar in construction. But then again, so were most cigar factories in Ybor City. Although, there are quite a few differences. The roof lines, the top window row’s distance from the roof, the brick decoration and the fence columns are very different.
I finally found an old advertisement from the early 1920’s that gave the address as 14th Ave and 17th Street, Tampa. This address is currently smack dab in the middle of I-4.
Photo Gallery (click images for full view)
The Brands
The following gallery of photos show some of the cigar brand artwork and a couple interior photos of the original factory. The final two photos are very interesting. The last photo shows the original factory #1 for Sanchez & Haya. The plaque just before the factory photo was on a building that has been demolished. The plaque has since gone missing. Although I did find a photo of the plaque inside a building. Unfortunately, there was no specific information of when or where that interior photo was taken. The location of the original factory is now a parking lot on the corner of 15th Street and 7th Avenue.
By Tim Fillmon, 1993 
The Factory No. 1 moniker was carried with them throughout Ybor City, long after they abandoned the original factory for the modern brick building pictured in the photo with the “Haya” header and water tower. That building was built in 1911 under Fanny Haya’s (Ignacio Haya’s wife) tenure as president of the firm. That building was demolished to make way for I-4.
Some time between 1911 and 1931 the company left the “factory No. 1” in that picture and move to a few other locations, including the Gradis Anis factory which is also depicted on this page and looks very similar to the other factory. It was not built by Haya though, and it was never entirely occupied by the firm.
Interestingly, some time before 1911 when the firm moved to their brick building, the actual Factory No. 1 was either added on to, or reconstructed to be 3.5 stories and is depicted in the first image of this page. Both that building and the original factory (depicted in the last image on this page) were on the same lot and had similar, but not identical, footprints. I do not know when the building was added on to or reconstructed. I do know that it did not burn down. It was demolished to make room for what would become the Ybor Post office and La Benéfica Clinic of El Centro Español, which would eventually become Blue Ribbon Grocery and burned down in the year 2000.
That’s very cool! Thank you for the information!