A Bit of Ybor Cigar History

(Cigar Aficionado) ... The city was once dominated by proud, huge cigar factories made of brick, each standing several stories tall. Most have crumbled or have been converted into something else. ... A precious few still have something to do with cigars.
One of those is the American headquarters of Arturo Fuente cigars. The building, which opened in 1895, originally crafted Charles The Great cigars. In the 1960s, Arturo Fuente and his son Carlos Fuente Jr. bought the factory to make it their new home for cigar production. For many years, the Fuentes made millions of cigars here, most by machine but many by hand. The days when the Fuentes made cigars in the United States are long behind them, but they still own the building in Ybor.

Photo: A Ybor cigar Factory circa 1890 (Library of Congress).