Tag: cigar city

After posting my articles on the Historic Cigar Factories of Ybor City, I thought this tour document would help anyone who comes to Tampa for business or vacation and wanted to see the buildings for themselves.

This structure, built around 1888 for the Robert Monne & Bro Co., is one of two wood framed cigar factories left standing. The other factory, the Salvadore Rodriegez factory is the older of the two.

The Samuel I. Davis Company was a large business that at one time had factories in New York City, West Tampa and Key West.

Tierra del Lago Cigar was founded by W. H. Streeter in the mid-1890’s in Lakeland, Florida. He used 85 dollars of gambling winnings to start his business.

Whether you loved or hated Thompson Cigars (and I found plenty of comments online from both sides), there is no disputing that Thompson and Company was a major player in the Tampa cigar industry.

When I first wrote this series, I couldn’t find much about the Cyrilla Cigar factory. While I was digging a little deeper on other posts, a few new sources popped up in my research. I’m happy to say I was able to put together a few puzzling pieces of information and make sense out of […]

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.

German emigré Samuel Seidenberg became the first cigar manufacturer in Key West (1867) and produced the popular La Rosa Espaniola cigar; it soared quickly to the top of clear Havana production. In 1894, Seidenberg moved from Key West to Tampa due to labor problems and built the 35,000 square foot Seidenberg Cigar Company factory.[su_pullquote]Brands: La […]

The Y Pendas & Alvarez Cigar Company was founded in 1867 by Ysidro Pendas, Miguel Alvarez and Faustino Lozano. In addition to Ybor City, Y Pendas & Alvarez had factories in New York City and Cuba.

The brick factory was built sometime before 1910. Originally, the El Grifo factory which was owned by the P. San Martin Cigar Company was on this same plot of land. A wooden building, it probably suffered damage by fire like so many of the other wooden cigar factories. At some point the company name was […]