Building on 7th Avenue, 1700 block, looking northwest from 18th St.

Building on 7th Avenue, 1700 block, looking northwest from 18th St

View of Building on Seventh Avenue (1700 block) in Ybor City looking northwest from Eighteenth Street. 1924. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

Parking lot, 7th Avenue, 1700 block, looking northwest from 18th St. 2020. © Chip Weiner .jpg

Now a parking lot, the building pictured in the Burgert photo was home to La Traduccion, a Spanish daily newspaper that translated and published news from the Tampa Morning Tribune and other English newspapers. It was one of the papers favored by cigar factories and given to los lectores, highly revered men who read news and other information to cigar factory workers. Manufacturers abolished readers in 1931 during a cigar workers' strike.

The property has housed several businesses since the late 1800s, including Cuervo’s Restaurant. Before its demolition, it suffered an arson fire in the 1970s when it was RJs Rendezvous, a gay club, and the final blow was a lightning strike pummeling the building in 1981, leaving a pile of rubble in the street.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again, Vol. 2