Daytripper

Ybor's prebar era

Tours and trolley rides reveal the melting pot and work ethic that shaped Ybor City.

By MICHELLE JONES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2003

YBOR CITY -- Experience the rich history of the various nationalities that blended to create the lively ethnic culture that permeates Ybor City.

Visit the Ybor City State Museum and observe the ovens that once produced bread for the Ferlita Bakery, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. See displays of the cigar industry that had men and women working side by side during the early 1900s. A lector would read to them while they worked, and they became some of the best educated workers in the state.

Visit a casita to see where the typical cigar worker lived. Museum volunteers give tours of the shotgun-style home each afternoon.

Stop by the Visitor Information Center and watch a video that explains what the Cubans, Germans, Italians and Romanian Jews who immigrated to Ybor City in 1886 accomplished together. The information center station stocks brochures about dining, entertainment, shopping and accommodations in Tampa's Latin Quarter. Free maps are available for self-guided walking tours. Guided tours begin at 10:15 a.m. Saturday at the museum park on Ninth Avenue for $5 per person.

Step into the past on the TECO Line Streetcar System, replicas of the trolleys that ran from the 1890s until 1946. Begin at Centennial Park, where an outdoor market is held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday, and ride past the historic Don Vincente De Ybor to downtown Tampa.

Daytime Ybor City

Where: Ybor City State Museum, 1818 Ninth Ave. (247-6323), and Ybor City Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Center, 1600 E Eighth Ave., Suite B104, Tampa (241-8838).

Hours: Chamber and visitor center, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; museum, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Cost: $2 for the museum tour.