YBOR CITY, Fla. (WFLA) – The J.C. Newman Cigar Company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning to celebrate the completed restoration of its 110 year old factory, El Reloj.
“We are very excited to use our El Reloj factory as a living history museum to tell the story of Ybor City and Tampa’s cigar heritage for generations to come,” Drew Newman said.
Four generations and 125 years after Newman’s great grandfather Julius Caeser Newman founded the family business, it is now the oldest premium family-owned cigar company in America.
“Ybor realized that Tampa’s climate, port and brand new railroad made it the ideal spot to roll cigars,” Newman said.
A century ago, Newman explained how the industry transformed the city of Tampa with more than 150 large factories hand rolling 500 million premium cigars each year.
“It really was the cigar industry that turned this swampy outpost into what it is today,” said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa), who joined Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and other officials at the ribbon-cutting.
In the 1970s, one by one many of those factories started to close because of competition from low wage companies and imported cigars.
Realizing they have the last operating cigar factory in “Cigar City,” Newman told 8 On Your Side his family felt a “moral obligation” to preserve the history.
“Nearly everyone who’s family has been here for more than a few generations has had relatives who made cigars, made cigar boxes, made cigar labels or supported Tampa’s cigar industry in some way,” he said.
The J.C. Newman Cigar Company received grant money from the city and Hillsborough County for the factory restoration.
Masks are required inside the factory and museum because of the pandemic.
Reservations for a guided tour can be made online.
