Tampa Box Company Building, 1602 7th Avenue Employees in front of Tampa Box Company Building at 1602 7th Avenue in Ybor City. Circa 1900. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System The Tampa Box Company was created in the mid-1890s and produced Cuban cedar boxes for the burgeoning cigar industry in Ybor City. It was located in the heart of the cigar manufacturing district at 7th Ave. and 16th St. and took the entire block between 16th and 17th streets. The process of box making was almost entirely mechanized. Early on, the eighty-five employees could produce 6,000 boxes per day. This undated photograph is probably circa 1900, after Henry Leiman purchased the company. In 1906, they incorporated and bought a new tract of land on 22nd St. for a new location. That building is now the Box Factory Lofts at the northwest corner of 22nd St. and Adamo Dr. They sold the building, and in 1907, the Gutierrez building, a 3-story brick building, began construction on...
