J.C. Newman is the oldest family-owned cigar manufacturer in the United States, founded in 1895 and operating in the same Ybor City factory since 1910. The factory still makes cigars by hand and by machine, and guided tours take visitors through the production process — from the aging room where tobacco leaves cure in Spanish cedar, through the rolling floor where bunchers and rollers shape the cigars by hand, to the banding and boxing operation.
The tour also covers the history of the Ybor City cigar industry and the Newman family's own story — four generations of cigar makers who survived every wave of disruption from the Depression through mechanisation to the decline of American smoking. The factory shop sells cigars at reasonable prices, and you can watch the rollers at work through the factory windows even without taking the full tour.
The building itself — an old red-brick factory with wide wooden floors — is characteristic of Ybor City industrial architecture. Tours run several times daily; book ahead on the Newman website. The factory is at 2701 North 16th Street, a short walk from 7th Avenue.