The Tampa Box Company was founded in the mid-1890s to manufacture Cuban cedar cigar boxes for the rapidly expanding cigar industry in Ybor City. Located at the corner of 7th Avenue and 16th Street, the factory occupied the entire block between 16th and 17th Streets in the center of Tampa’s cigar manufacturing district.
The company was highly mechanized for its time. With approximately eighty-five employees, the factory could produce nearly 6,000 cigar boxes daily, helping supply the enormous demand generated by Tampa’s cigar factories around the turn of the twentieth century. Around 1900, businessman Henry Leiman purchased the company, and in 1906 the business incorporated and relocated to a larger tract on 22nd Street. That later industrial building survives today as the Box Factory Lofts.
After the company moved, the original property was redeveloped. Construction of the Gutierrez Building began in 1907, and the structure opened in 1909. The building included the Dixie House Hotel on its second floor and became part of Ybor City’s growing commercial district.
Like much of Ybor City, the surrounding neighborhood declined economically between the 1940s and 1970s as the cigar industry faded. Efforts to revitalize the district intensified in the 1990s. In 1997, under Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, development plans for the controversial Centro Ybor project were announced. The $40-million retail and entertainment complex aimed to attract national retailers and millions of visitors annually. Although major attractions such as a multi-screen movie theater and entertainment venues initially opened, many businesses eventually failed, and the City of Tampa later assumed financial responsibility for the development.
The history of the Tampa Box Company and its site reflects the broader story of Ybor City itself — industrial growth fueled by cigar manufacturing, followed by decline, preservation efforts, and attempts at urban revitalization in modern Tampa.
Source: The Clio – Tampa Box Company Historical Entry
Tampa Box Company's First Building at 1620 7th Avenue.1900. Photographer unknown. Tony Pizzo Collection, University of Florida digital collection
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