Factory Tours
J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is Ybor City’s last working cigar factory and America’s oldest, family-owned premium cigar manufacturer. We invite the public to come and visit our historic 1910 cigar factory El Reloj for guided factory tours and a special presentation in honor of Archives Awareness Week. Our factory museum, store, and hand-rolling room is open to the public from 9:00am to 5:30pm. During Archives Awareness Week, there will be a discount code, AAW2024 (20% off) for regular guided tours in the morning and evening.
Program
Aging Gracefully: The Cigar Industry in Tampa from 1953 to 2010
Monday, July 15th - 11:00 a.m.
J.C. Newman Company - 2701 North 16th Street
J.C. Newman Cigar Co. operates the historic El Reloj cigar factory building as the last cigar manufacturer in Tampa. Villazon & Co., Corral-Wodiska, Perfecto-Garcia, Cuesta-Rey, Antonio, Santaella, and other cigar companies were household names for many Tampa families prior to the 1980s. As of 2024, however, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is the last of over 42,000 American premium cigar factories. Join company historian Holden Rasmussen in J.C. Newman’s The American cigar rolling room as he charts the changes to America’s cigar industry since 1953, and the ways those changes affected Tampa. Historic cigar boxes, archival materials, and cigar factory photographs will be on display before the presentation.