Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
Nicholas Santana opened a cigar factory here in 1898. James F. Johnson served as its manager.
The cigar industry in this area was founded by Vicente Martinez Ybor, who in 1885 built the first factory on 7th Ave. In mid-1886, this building was completed and he moved his operation here. The old building was donated to the workers involved in the establishment of Ybor City. It was converted to a theatre.
Ybor had moved his business here from Key West to avoid his employees' demands for better working conditions and higher wages. The site was recommended by Gavino Gutierrez, a Spanish civil engineer who had investigated this area in 1884 as a possible site for a guava processing plant.
For a time, the Ybor Cigar Company factory was the largest cigar-producing factory in the world, and employed twenty percent of all cigar-makers in Ybor City. It also provided a meeting place for Cuban patriots. Architect and contractor, C.E. Parcell, designed and built the factory and 50 homes for workers. The factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1972.
This square has been the location of many businesses with Jewish owners, including the Blue Ribbon Supermarket owned by the Bobo families, the David Stein Furniture Co. which opened in 1917, the David Kasriel Dept. Store, The Jewel Box owned by Buddy Levine and then by Dave Kartt, Tillye Simovitz' Adorable Hat Store, the Isadore Davis Department Store, Abe Herscovitz' Liberty Mens Store, the Ozias Meerovitz Mens Store, the Weissman Clothing Store and Louis Wohl & Sons Restaurant Supply.
"El Pasaje" was the second brick building in Ybor City, erected in 1886-88 with money donated by Vicente Ybor. It was popular with the elite and famous visitors. Jose Marti slept here on November 25, 1891. The Cherokee Club upstairs was founded in 1895 to promote social intercourse among its members, including many prominent Tampa businessmen and cigar manufacturers. In cluded on the list of the hotel's guests are Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and artist Frederic Remington. Included in the building were a hotel and gambling casino.
Also in a portion of this building was a store known at times as the Ike Weiss Department Store, the Sunshine Department Store, and Manuel Liebovitz & Sons. It was one of more than 30 Jewish businesses which were operating in Ybor City by 1920.
The building has an Eclectic style with Italian Renaissance elements, and is modeled after an Italian Renaissance villa. It later was the home of Cafe Creole and the El Pasaje Club. This building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1972.
This was built in 1895 and was the home of the Ybor Land and Improvement Company, the development arm of Vicente Ybor's enterprises. It later housed the A.A. Gonzalez Clinic, a health care facility, until 1980. A more recent use has been as a luxury bed and breakfast.
In 1917, Ambrosio Benitez moved his cigar company from West Tampa to a building at this location.
A night school for Cuban emigres was operated here in 1889. The teacher was Don Jose Guadalupe Rivero. Later, this was the Louis Wohl Household Supplies store, and The Palace, operated by Louis and Mark Shine.
In 1895, this was a popular meeting place for Cuban exiles for the plotting for independence. It was owned and operated by Antonio Menendez. Some of the freedom fighters leaving for Cuba had machetes and knives from the kitchen of this restaurant.
Near this site, editor Ramon Rivero y Rivero published the newspaper, Cuba, from 1887 to 1898. It was dedicated to the cause of the island's independence from Spain.
Hillsborough County's first legal hanging took place near here on May 17, 1850. Jose Perfino, known as "El Indio", was executed for the murder of Thomas Cline.
Here was the Mirta Hook and Ladder Volunteer Fire Station, established in 1888. It was named after the youngest daughter of Don Vicente Martinez Ybor. It was led by Capt. Frank Puglisi.
The Freethinkers of Marti and Maceo organized on October 26, 1900, and held their early meetings here at the home of one of their members, Ruperto Pedroso. The organization built its own two-story brick building in 1908 at the corner of 6th Ave. and 11th St.
After surviving an assassination attempt, Jose Marti stayed here with Ruperto and his wife, Paulina, who had moved to Tampa in 1878. When the Pedrosos returned to Cuba in 1910, they were honored as heroes of the revoulation. Their old wooden house located here was intended to be part of a memorial, but it burned down in the 1950s. The site is now a park which was financed in part by $25,000 from former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista.
This park containing soil from every Cuban province was deeded to Cuba in 1956. It was formally dedicated on February 28, 1960.
Cubans founded a social and political club in 1886, and Vicente Martinez donated a wooden tobacco stripping house as an incentive for them to remain in Tampa. It was converted to a social center referred to as the "Cradle of Cuban Liberty", used by Jose Marti for his organizing of Cuban freedom fighters in 1891. On November 26 and 27 of that year, Marti delivered two speeches and drafted resolutions which became the program of the United Cuban Revolutionary Party.
Upstairs was the Sans Souci Theater.
The Marti-Maceo Union Club organized in 1904. It was the second Cuban club, started by the Afro-Cuban community after Florida laws prohibited integrated social clubs. It is named for the white Jose Marti and the Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo, leaders of Cuba's war for independence.
The first clubhouse at the corner of 6th Ave. and 11th St., built in 1909 with a dance hall and theater, was razed in 1965. The club acquired this building, erected in 1950, to replace it. The tiles with the likenesses of Marti and Maceo were installed in 1985.
In the days of the Indians, the spring located here was a shrine to the Timuquan water gods. The early Spanish and other settlers used it, and it was the water supply for Fort Brooke. On July 12, 1884, H.A. Snodgrass opened a ten-ton ice plant using a machine he had acquired the previous October. Because of competition from other ice firms, he moved his plant to Cedar Key. Florida Brewing Company, the first brewery in the state, incorporated in 1896 and built its plant here that year. The water from the spring was the main ingredient in La Tropical beer.
The brewery had Eduardo Manera as its president. It was modeled after the Castle Brewery in Johannesburg. Its beer was termed the "finest in America" by the Tampa Times in 1900. This brewery shipped more beer to Cuba than any other in the U.S.
Nick Chillura Nuccio was the son of Sicilian immigrants. He was the first Latin to take some of the power away from the predominant Anglo establishment, serving as city alderman beginning in 1929, a county commissioner from 1936 to 1956, and mayor of Tampa.
This company had a cigar factory here until 1918, when it moved to West Tampa to share a building with the Salvador Rico Company.
This club formed in 1902 when the radical Asturian Spanish residents left the Centro Espanol. Its first building burned down in June of 1911.
Bonfoey and Elliott designed this Beaux-Arts Classical style structure, using some Mannerist elements. It was built at a cost of $110,000 in 1914 of yellow brick and features window bays with engaged columns, plus a balustraded parapet.
Inside is a cantina, ballroom and 1,200-seat theater, which was the only Spanish language one in the U.S. It served as the headquarters for the New Deal's Federal Theatre Project. With federal sponsorship, it continued until July of 1939. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1974. The ballroom later became a Latin disco open to the public.
This club was organized on October 10, 1899, as the October 10 Cuban National Club (or El Club Nacional Cubano). It was renamed in 1902. They used a building erected in 1892 until they demolished it to build a new one, dedicated on November 2, 1912. The two-story building cost $18,000. It burned down on April 30, 1916.
The present building was built in 1917-18 for $60,000 with a Beaux-Arts Classicism style. Designed by M. Leo Elliott, it is built of yellow brick with stone trim. Above the main entrance door is a stained glass Diocletian window with Cuba's coat of arms and flag.
Inside is a 900-seat theater, ballroom, boxing arena, pharmacy, library, gymnasium and cantina. This structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1972.
In a house near here in 1893 two Spanish agents plotted to poison Jose Marti. However, Marti suspected and the agents failed. They asked for forgiveness, and after Marti forgave them they joined his cause.
This two-story building erected here in 1929 was known as Las Logia Unidas because five separate lodges met here. It was later the place where La Gaceta newspaper was published in English, Spanish and Italian. It was also the location of the Star Grocery, owned by Max Star. This building is also known as La Benefica.
A cigar factory was opened here in 1920 and continued in business for two years.
On December 22, 1886, Vicente Ybor completed his home, which he named "La Quinta". He was known for his lavish parties held here. The house was razed during the 1940s.
The first Catholic mass was held in Ybor City on March 16, 1890, in Mr. Tissler's home on 6th Ave.
This church was completed in 1891 by Fathers John B. Quinlan and Thomas de Carriere and named Our Lady of Mercy. It is named after Ybor city's patron saint, Nuestra Senora de la Mercedes. The altar was donated by Mercedes Ybor, the widow of the founder of Ybor City. When the church was torn down, the altar was moved to the little St. Paul Church in Arcadia.
The present sanctuary was built in 1937.
In 1910, the Berriman Brothers Cigar Company moved from West Tampa this factory, which had been built in 1908. The firm was sold in 1930 to Wengle and Mandell. During that same year, the Berriman brothers opened a new cigar factory at 402 22nd St. The company switched from cigars to undercoating products in 1950.
This building was later occupied by the cigar manufacturing firms of Marcelino Perez Company and then M. Bustillo and Merriam. The company moved to another location and then closed after Moises Bustillo died in 1943.
On this site was a 34 x 88 foot two-story wood frame boarding house. On March 1, 1908, its wood shingle roof caught fire, and the flames spread through a 55-acre area. By the time the fire was put out, 171 cottages, 42 two-story frame buildings, five cigar factories, and five brick stores were destroyed. The damage exceeded a million dollars.
This is the second-oldest cigar factory in the city, built here between 1895 and 1898 for Siedenberg and Company, and then the Havana-American Cigar Company. Later, it was the home of the Ybor City Brewing Company.
Ybor City's first citizen was Gavino Gutierrez, an engineer who investigated the area as a possible site for a guava processing plant. He platted Ybor City and settled here, calling his estate Spanish Park. It was later converted into a restaurant.
In 1910, this house and two across the street at 3507 and 3509 were built as small country bungalows. The surrounding area was chiefly orange groves. This house was owned by the Stalnakers, and for many years was the residence of circuit judge and civic leader Leo Stalnaker.
This is the oldest structure in Tampa, having been built in 1842 by the grandfather of Dr. Sheldon Stringer. It sat on the south portion of the present site of the city hall, and was purchased by Imboden Stalnaker in 1914. He disassembled it and moved it here, reassembling it according to the original plans. The only modification was the installation of a gable in the front roof in place of two dormer windows. This area was known as Gary, for a time a separate municipality.
Near here were three army camps, occupied by troops waiting to leave for Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War. They included the "Rough Riders", led by Theodore Roosevelt.
This bank was founded by John Grimaldi, and the building was constructed in 1918.
This is the largest and oldest Spanish restaurant in the U.S., first opened in 1905 as a cafe for cigarmakers. It was started by Casimiro Hernandez, Sr., who took the name from the song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean". His son took it over after his death in 1930. Its architecture is Spanish and Moorish, and it can handle up to 1,500 patrons in its 11 dining rooms.
This three-story factory was built in 1895 for Garcia & Company, and later was used for shipping and warehousing supplies and tobacco products. It was occupied by the Salvador Rodriguez Cigar Company and later, beginning in 1964, the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company.
Cosio and Company moved here from West Tampa in 1906 and in 1907 moved to the corner of 6th Ave. and 21st St. In January of 1912, the firm was bought by Col. Alvaro Garcia of the Garcia and Vega Company.
Later, Fannie and Irving Katz operated their Little Katz Fabrics store here. They were followed by the Edwards Childrens Store owned by Morris Weisman and his son, Edward.
This brick building was erected in 1893 by Pietra and Jose Scozzari to be the home of the original La Tropicana Restaurant and the Bank of Ybor City. It was later the Charles Haimovitz Mens Store.
In 1896, Francisco Ferlita from Santo Stefano, Sicily, opened a bakery here in a wood frame building, and sold bread for 3 and 5 cents a loaf. That structure burned down in 1922 and was replaced by a yellow brick building constructed around the old brick ovens. Francisco died in 1931, but his five sons continued the business here until 1973.
The building now houses the Ybor City State Museum. Directly behind it at 2008 N. 18th St. is the Oliva Tobacco Company, the only surviving wood frame cigar factory in Ybor City.
These homes are typical of those lived in by cigar workers from 1895 until about 1920. These were originally built at other locations, then were moved here in the mid-1980s and restored as part of the Ybor City State Museum.
They follow a long, narrow Spanish style floor plan, with rooms lined up next to a long hallway along one side. Houses like these are sometimes referred to as conones or shotgun houses, as it was said a shotgun could be fired from the front door to the back without hitting a wall.
These houses were built from Florida pine with hand-split cedar or cypress shakes. They had no heat, running water, or electricity. Shutters were on the inside. After the 1908 fire, roofs were covered with tin.
Along this route was the military road connecting Forts Brooke (Tampa) and King (Ocala). Along this trail in Sumter County on December 23, 1835, Maj. Francis L. Dade and 106 of his soldiers were massacred in the first battle of the Second Seminole War.
This mutual aid society for Italian immigrants was organized in 1894, and their first $40,000 clubhouse was built across the street in 1912 with an athletic room and theatre. It burned in 1915 and was replaced by this one in 1917-18 at a cost of $80,000. It was built with an Italian Renaissance style with classic columns, terra cotta relief details, and marble. The building was renovated in 1962.
At this site was the grocery store owned by Filippo F. Licata, who also led L'Unione Italiana from 1906 to 1924.
This building was erected in 1918.
In the early 1900s, a variety of Socialist groups met in Ybor City. This one met here under the sponsorship of publisher Vincente Antinori. In 1911, this group sponsored a consumer cooperative. It later housed the Dayan Linens store, owned by Victor Dayan. The Bank of Ybor City moved out of this building in 1955.
In 1908, Ramirez and Company moved its cigar manufacturing operation from West Tampa to Gary, a suburb of Ybor City. In 1912, it moved to this location, where it lasted into 1913.
In 1887, the Plant Railroad System built a railroad station here.
In 1887, Emilio Pons founded the first cigar company which was not moved here from another location. At this location, Jose Marti made his last Ybor City speech on October 12, 1894. The factory was later the home of La Floridana Cigar Company. The wooden factory burned down in July of 1974.
This establishment, operated by Louis Athanasaw, was a notorious place "where almost anything could happen - and often did".
When Ignacio Haya heard about Ybor's move from Key West to the Tampa area, he came here and bought 20 acres to build his own factory. Although Ybor's factory was completed first, the Cuban workers went on strike just before production was to begin because Ybor had hired a Spaniard to work with them. Haya hired only Cubans, so this company's factory #1 located here produced the first clear Havana cigar in Tampa on April 13, 1886. Within a year, they were producing a half a million each month.
In 1919, the factory became the home of M. Bustillo and Company. Its 500 workers produced the brand Espadilla. It was renamed M. Bustillo and Merriam in 1922 and was later owned by the Berriman Brothers. Later, Curtis Gimpel had an offices machines store on this corner.
This restaurant was founded in 1890, and was visited by future president Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the century. Manuel Menendez operated it as a coffee shop, popular with cigar makers from the Sanchez y Haya factory across the street. The original building burned down in November of 1891, and was rebuilt the following year. It was later renamed El Goya.
In October of 1885, V. Martinez Ybor & Company had bought the land here from Capt. John Thomas Lesley for $9,000, of which $4,000 was provided by Tampa citizens. The original 40 acres was bounded by 15th (California) St., 6th (Kentucky) Ave., 11th (Leroy) St., and 7th (Georgia or Broadway) Ave. Ybor bought 50 more acres, stretching to the shores of Hillsborough Bay. The Chamber of Commerce adoped certain measures which allowed the introduction of cigar factories.
In 1885, two cigar makers, Teclo and Matancero, had a duel as a result of both desiring the same woman. One died instantly, the first violent death in Ybor City.
During 1895, this was a meeting place for Cuban patriots and others who supported the Cubans in their fight for independence from Spain. One such supporter was Italian revolutionary Orestes Ferrara. Later, Sam Hartzman had his 2nd Hand Suits store here.
In 1917, the Ritz Theatre was built here with an interior resembling a Spanish plaza, and later became a nightclub.
This building was designed by cigar manufacturers Ignacio Haya and Serafin Sanchez for the Spanish Theater. It was erected in 1912 and remodeled in 1995.
This club was founded in 1892 and dedicated this clubhouse in 1912, replacing a prior wooden one destroyed by fire. It offered the country's first socialized medical care plan. It closed in 1983. The third floor ballroom had a balcony for the orchestra.
This rooming house was built by Gavino Gutierrez, the Spanish-born engineer who suggested Tampa as the location of the cigar industry. A New York food broker, he was on his way home through Key West when he met Vicente Martinez Ybor and two other cigar manufacturers. He convinced them that they should move their businesses to Tampa.
Upstairs was the Dixie Hotel and downstairs was the Pathe Theater. Also in the building at another time was Gregory and David Waksman's Corona Brush Co.
An interesting building was erected here in 1912, designed by Kenneth Kennard with a unique lightwell system. It was replaced after 2000 by modern construction.
In its early days, the cigar manufacturers in Ybor City had to contend with labor unrest and strikes. At this location was a two-story wooden meeting place for workers, known as the Labor Temple. It functioned as a soup kitchen, sanctuary and batteground. It remained in use through the 1920s.
This was built in 1903 by Antonio de Rio. Unlike most local buildings, it still has its original iron and wood balcony.
A three-story wooden hotel was built here in 1887, the first in Ybor City. It was operated by Jacinto Olavarria and Jose Rubin. The hotel burned down in Ybor City's first great fire, in November of 1891.
This building erected in 1904 started out as a wholesale grocery and grain store. Local legend states that Teddy Roosevelt stabled his horses next to this building. For a time, there was a gambling casino in the basement. This became the home of a family-owned dry cleaners in 1930.
This two-story brick building was the command post of the labor movement and the headquarters of the union of cigarmakers and restaurant waiters.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
A Pictorial History of Ybor City, by Charles E. Harner (Trend Publications, Inc. 1975)
Accent Florida, by Hampton Dunn (1975)
African Americans in Florida, by Maxine D. Jones and Kevin M. McCarthy (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1993)
Afro-Cubans in Ybor City: A Centennial History, by Susan D. Greenbaum (Tampa Printing 1986)
Black Florida, by Kevin M. McCarthy (Hippocrene Books 1995)
Ciudad de Cigars: West Tampa, by Armando Mendez (1994)
Florida Cuban Heritage Trail, (Florida Department of State 1994)
Florida Historic Stained Glass Survey: Sites of Historic Windows in Public Facilities in the State of Florida, by Robert O. Jones (Florida Members of the Stained Glass Association of America 1995)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
Florida Jewish Heritage Trail, by Rachel B. Heimovics and Marcia Zerivitz (Florida Department of State 2000)
Florida Off the Beaten Path, by Diana and Bill Gleasner (The Globe Pequot Press 1993)
Florida Portrait: A Pictorial History of Florida, by Jerrell Shofner (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1990)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Historic Homes of Florida, by Laura Stewart & Susanne Hupp (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1995)
Historic Overview of Greater Ybor City, Subdivision Sections, by M.C. Leonard (Hillsborough Community College 1978)
The Illustrated Guide to the Florida West Coast, by M.C. Bob Leonard (Purple Islands Production 1992)
The Immigrant World of Ybor City, by Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozetta (University of Illinois Press 1990)
Jose Marti Park: The Story of Cuban Property in Tampa, by Mark I. Scheinbaum (University of South Florida 1976)
Tampa, by Karl H. Grismer (The St. Petersburg Printing Company 1950)
Tampa: A Pictorial History, by Hampton Dunn (The Donning Company 1985)
Tampa: A Town on Its Way, (Junior League of Tampa, Inc. 1971)
Tampa That Was ... History and Chronology Through 1946, by Evanell Klintworth Powell (Star Publishing Company, Inc. 1973)
Tampa: The Treasure City, by Gary R. Mormino and Anthony P. Pizzo (Continental Heritage Press, Inc. 1983)
Tampa Town 1824-1886: The Cracker Village With A Latin Accent, by Anthony P. Pizzo (Hurricane House Publishers, Inc. 1968)
Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
The Ybor City Story (1885-1954), by Jose Rivero Muniz
Yesterday's Tampa, by Hampton Dunn (E.A. Seemann Publishing, Inc. 1972)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.