In the early 1940s, El Progresso Emporium, an Italian American market, had a store here selling grocery items and ran until 1948, when the Professional Furniture Exchange opened, selling furniture, stoves, rugs, and other household items, along with menswear. It was open until the mid-1950s. In 1957, Victor Gancedo opened Victor’s Grocery after obtaining a beer and wine license for the location. Gancedo died in 1964 at the age of 48. The construction in this photo is unexplained. Perhaps it was for the installation of pipe seen in the bottom right corner. Records indicate the store closed around 1966.

This corner is now part of the expanding Hillsborough Community College campus and acts as the Public Service Technology Building. It takes the entire block. The establishment of HCC in Ybor City was controversial in 1970. One of the promises in the late 1960s, with the construction of Interstate 4 and the razing of rows of former cigar workers' houses and factories in the Urban Renewal Program, was that residential land would be dedicated to replace those structures. However, City Council approved twenty-three acres of UR land to be converted from residential and commercial to educational and parking, taking a large swath of land through the district. Since then, the college has continued acquiring land in and around Ybor City, expanding its campus.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved