Ybor Factory Building

Ybor City ( EE-bor) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Cuba, Spain, and Italy. For the next 50 years, workers in Ybor City's cigar factories rolled hundreds of millions of cigars annually. Ybor City was unique in the American South as a successful town almost entirely populated and owned by immigrants. The neighborhood had features unusual among contemporary communities in the south, most notably its multiethnic and multiracial population and their many mutual aid societies. The cigar industry employed thousands of well-paid workers, helping Tampa grow from an economically depressed village to a bustling city in about 20 years and giving it the nickname "Cigar City".Ybor City grew and flourished from the 1890s until the Great Depression of the 1930s, when a drop in demand for fine cigars reduced the number of cigar factories and mechanization in the cigar industry greatly reduced employment opportunities in the neighborhood. This process accelerated after World War II, and a steady exodus of residents and businesses continued until large areas of the formerly vibrant neighborhood were virtually abandoned by the late 1970s. Attempts at redevelopment failed until the 1980s, when an influx of artists began a slow process of gentrification. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a portion of the original neighborhood around 7th Avenue developed into a nightclub and entertainment district, and many old buildings were renovated for new uses. Since then, the area's economy has diversified with more offices and residences, and the population has shown notable growth for the first time in over half a century. Ybor City has been designated as a National Historic Landmark District, and several structures in the area are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008, 7th Avenue, Ybor City's main commercial thoroughfare, was recognized as one of the "10 Great Streets in America" by the American Planning Association. In 2010 Columbia Restaurant, which is Florida's oldest restaurant, was named a "Top 50 All-American icon" by Nation's Restaurant News magazine.

The El Pasaje (also known as the Cherokee Club) is a historic site in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. It was originally built in 1886 to house the offices for Vicente Martinez Ybor's companies as he planned Ybor City and then ran his cigar factory and other businesses. El Pasaje has been home to many establishments since: a hotel, several restaurants, several bars and speakeasies, a military recruiting station, and newspaper offices, among others. The two-story brick building is located at the corner of 14th Street (Avenida Republica De Cuba) and East 9th Avenue across the street from Ybor's original cigar factory, what is today Ybor Square. On November 15, 1972, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Cadrecha Plaza is a TECO Line station located in Ybor City, Florida. It is located at 13th Street and 7th Avenue.

El Circulo Cubano de Tampa (also known as the Cuban Club) is a historic building constructed in 1917 (to replace an earlier structure on the same site that burned down) to serve as a gathering place for Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. It was designed by Tampa architect M. Leo Elliott. It is located at Palm Avenue and 14th Street. On November 15, 1972, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as Cuban Club, Ybor City.The building has a theater and once included a bowling alley, spa, pharmacy, ballroom, library, and cantina. Decorated with imported tile, stained glass, scraffito spandrels and murals it continues the legacy of the club first established in 1902 as a mutual aid society. In 1893, Cuban revolutionary, writer, and poet Jose Marti was visiting the building in order to gain support for his revolutionary party and movement in Cuba. During the time Marti was in the building, there was an assassination attempt on his life when two Spanish agents gave him a glass of poison. Marti survived the encounter by pure intuition and quickly forgave his would-be assassins. Today there is a plaque remembering the incident outside the western entrance to the structure.

La Unión Martí-Maceo (also known as the Martí-Maceo Society) is a historic social club in Ybor City, Florida established by Afro-Cubans. It was founded in 1900. It is a site on the Florida Black Heritage Trail. It is at 1226 East 7th Avenue. The ornate clubhouse was demolished during an urban renewal redevelopment program in the 1960s, and its headquarters was proposed for sale to address financial difficulties in 2018. The scholar Susun D. Greenbaum described the club as "the focal institution around which, and inside of which, the Afro-Cuban identity emerged in Tampa."

Streetcar Society is a TECO Line station located in Ybor City, Florida. There is one side platform and one track on the northwest corner of 15th Street and 8th Avenue. The track and platform is situated on a concrete slab on the north side of 8th Avenue. The station is one block west of Centro Ybor station.

The Ritz Ybor (originally the Rivoli Theatre) is an events venue located in the historic Ybor City, within Tampa, Florida. Opening in 1917, the theatre catered to the Afro-Cuban community in the emerging neighborhood. Throughout the years, the venue was served as a cinema, adult movie theater, nightclub and concert venue. The theatre was transformed into its current incarnation in 2008; becoming one of Tampa's premier live music and events venue.

The Florida Brewing Company building is a historic brewery building that once housed Ybor City Brewing Company, which became Florida Brewing Company. It has been restored and converted into a law office. It is the tallest building in Tampa's Ybor City Historic District.

For the similarly named building in West Tampa see El Centro Español of West Tampa El Centro Español de Tampa is a historic building in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, in the U.S. state of Florida. Built as an ethnic and cultural clubhouse in 1912, the red brick structure situated at 1526–1536 East 7th Avenue is today part of a shopping and entertainment complex. It remains one of the few surviving structures specific to Spanish immigration to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a legacy which garnered the Centro Español building recognition as a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) on June 3, 1988. El Centro Español de Tampa is one of two individual structures within Hillsborough County to be so designated. The historic and cultural significance of El Centro Español de Tampa was noted well before the announcement of its NHL status. As early as 1974, the building was included by the National Register of Historic Places as one of the Contributing Properties within the Ybor City Historic District. The building remains an important component of the district, which on December 4, 1990, gained more distinct recognition as a National Historic Landmark District. It is now home to Jason Fernandez's restaurant Carne.

On October 29, 2023, at around 3:00 am, a mass shooting occurred in the Ybor City district of Tampa, Florida, United States, at the popular tourist area of 7th Ave. A fight broke out between two groups, killing a 20-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy, and injuring 16 others. Three suspects have been arrested, one at the scene, while police believe another is at large.

Centro Ybor (formerly known as Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union or Federal Credit Union) is a TECO Line streetcar station in historic Ybor City. The station has one island platform, located on a passing siding, that allows for trams to pass by each other on the single track line. Just west of the stations, there are two pedestrian overpasses over 8th Avenue that are part of the Centro Ybor complex.

Ybor Stadium was a proposed baseball park in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. If approved and constructed, it would have served as the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball.