Ybor City, Its Story in Pictures
has been a collaboration of photographers, historians and members of the business, restaurant, art, and museum communities to tell the story of Ybor City's past and present. More than 190 illustrations, photographs, and accompanying text illuminate the significance of the images in Ybor City's history. They show the unique nature of a historic district that encompassed more than seven different cultural and ethnic groups living in one community. In 1885, Vicente Martinez-Ybor decides at the age of 68 to start his business over in a new place, Tampa, Florida. The advent of the cigar industry in Tampa jumpstarted the little township of 700 to the prominent, three million and counting, urban environment of Tampa Bay today. This visual history documents Ybor City's contribution to that story.