Ybor City History (2024)

FAQs

What is the significance of Ybor City in US history? ›

Ybor City is one of only three National Historic Landmark Districts located in the State of Florida. Cobblestone streets and huge old cigar factory buildings make up this historic and legendary town. Founded in 1886 by Vicente Martinez Ybor, Ybor City became "the cigar capital of the world" by 1900.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from the village of Bor in Belarus. Dutch: probably from the Middle Dutch personal name Borre, from an ancient Germanic name containing the element bern 'brilliant, bright'. Compare Borr .

The V.M. Ybor Neighborhood was named for Spanish immigrant Vicente Martinez Ybor, who, in 1885, founded Ybor City's Cigar Industry.

Ybor City grew and prospered during the first decades of the 20th century. Thousands of residents built a community that combined Cuban, Spanish, Italian, and Jewish culture. "Ybor City is Tampa's Spanish India," observed a visitor to the area, "What a colorful, screaming, shrill, and turbulent world."

From historic cigar shops to charming streets, unique businesses and a flock of resident chickens— few places in the world are as charming as Ybor City. Ybor put Tampa on the map as the cigar capital of the world. Today, it's home to a vibrant community and one of Tampa's most historic neighborhoods.

Tampa used to produce Cuban cigars.

Many people relate Cuban cigars with the country of Cuba. However, the largest cigar factory globally operated for years in Tampa's Ybor City. That's why one of Tampa's monikers is Cigar City.

Ybor was attracted to Tampa by the ample land, temperate climate, and monetary bonuses offered by the Tampa Board of Trade. He began planning a company town with his business partner Eduardo Manrara and architect Gavino Gutierrez, whose namesake 7^th Avenue building is the current home of Nicahabana and Tabanero cigars.

The City of Tampa is known for the Buccaneers and the Lightning. Ironically, Tampa wasn't the original name at all. The true original name of Tampa was really Tanpa… with an “N.” Rodney Kite-Powell with the Tampa Bay History Center said “Tanpa” is from the Native American Floridians meaning Sticks of Fire.

The Spanish correspondingly referred to present-day Charlotte Harbor as the “Bay of Tanpa.” Fontaneda listed one or two towns that were probably located in Tampa Bay as we know it today, including “Tocobaga.” The Spanish referred to the estuary we know as Tampa Bay mainly as the “Bay of the Holy Spirit” or the “Bay of ...

It is believed to mean "sticks of fire" in the language of the Calusa, an Indian tribe that once lived south of the area. This may relate to the high concentration of lightning strikes that west central Florida receives every year during the summer months.

How old is the Colombian restaurant in Ybor City? ›

Family owned and operated for more than 115 years, Florida's Oldest Restaurant℠, founded in 1905 in Tampa's historic Ybor City. Award-winning Spanish/Cuban cuisine & internationally acclaimed wine list.

You won't go far in Ybor City without running into several roosters, the mascots of the area.

Ybor City and Tampa Crime Rates

Sites like Area Vibes list estimates of violent and property crime for Ybor City and give it an overall rating of F. The total crime estimate is 4,952 incidents per 100,000 residents. Violent crime estimates place the number of incidents per 100,000 residents at 1,492.

While Cubans represent the highest percentage of Hispanics statewide, Puerto Rico is the home island to the greatest number of Hispanics in the Tampa Bay area. Combined, South American countries led by Colombia contribute 6 percent of the Hispanic population in Hillsborough and 10.3 percent in Pinellas County.

Money called Tampa one of America's hottest cities and highlighted Ybor City as one of the best places to live. “Many factors that make Tampa such a great place are concentrated in Ybor City, the area's undisputed cultural epicenter.

The port city of Tampa served as the primary staging area for U.S. troops bound for the war in Cuba. The arrival of over 30,000 troops, including Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders cavalry unit, changed Tampa from a small town into a city.

The discovery of phosphate, the arrival of Plant's railroad, and the founding of Ybor City and West Tampa—all in the mid-1880s—were crucial to Tampa's development. The once-struggling village of Tampa became a bustling boomtown almost overnight and had grown into one of the largest cities in Florida by 1900.

History. In 1917, the building opened as the Rivoli Theatre, a red brick building with a silent movie theater on the first floor and various apartments on the second floor. It was the first theater of its kind in the United States. In 1931, the building underwent an expansion and reopened as The Ritz Theatre.

After his second deportation to Spain in 1878, José Martí moved to the United States in 1881. There he mobilized the support of the Cuban exile community, especially in Ybor City (Tampa area) and Key West, Florida. His goal was revolution in order to achieve independence from Spain.