Tampa’s moniker as the Cigar City began in the late 1800s when Ignacio Haya and Serafin Sanchez joined Vicente Ybor and Eduardo Manrara in what is now Ybor City. Ybor took to building a massive brick structure while Haya constructed a more modest two-story wooden structure in a race to roll the first cigar. Ybor’s production was halted by a labor strike long enough for Haya and Sanchez to begin production. The first Tampa cigar was produced on this site on April 13, 1886, and the state licensed the factory as Factory No. 1. They came to produce over 500,000 cigars a month. With its success, the company moved to a larger 3-story building on 17th Street in 1906. This building was demolished in 1922 to build a new two-story brick building.

The new building once housed the Clinica de Emergencias la Benefica and the Broadway Cafe. Later, the US Post Office, Columbia Music and Appliance Co., and the Century Loan Company did business here. In 1970, Blue Ribbon Supermarket opened on the site and operated until the 1990s. In August 2000, one month after Blue Ribbon Market owners had sold the 25,000-square-foot building for $2.1 million, the building had a catastrophic fire and burned to the ground. After the fire, there was initial talk of rebuilding, but it never happened. Like many historic sites, it is now a private-pay parking lot.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved