Ybor City is the most distinctive neighbourhood in Tampa — a few blocks of ornate red-brick cigar factories, wrought-iron balconies, and Spanish social clubs that have survived a century of economic decline and urban renewal to become the city's primary entertainment district. The neighbourhood was founded in 1885 by Cuban cigar magnate Vicente Martinez-Ybor and became one of the largest Cuban and Spanish communities in the United States.
The main artery is 7th Avenue (La Sétima), running east-west through the district. At its peak in the early 20th century, the neighbourhood produced over 700 million hand-rolled cigars a year. The workers — Cuban, Spanish, Italian, Jewish — were a political and cultural force: many of the factories employed readers (lectores) who sat on platforms and read aloud from newspapers and novels while the cigar rollers worked. The tradition is remembered in the Ybor City Museum State Park.
Today the factories have been converted to restaurants, bars, and apartments, but the bones of the neighbourhood are intact. Weekend nights bring crowds for the bar scene; weekday mornings are quiet and good for exploring the architecture. The old social clubs — the Centro Español, the Círculo Cubano — still function in some form, though none has the membership of the old days.