Day 4 (January 13, 2023): Ybor City

While Pam was attending the second full day of the FMEA conference, I had two items planned for my day in Tampa.  The first was to visit historic Ybor City in Tampa’s northeast by streetcar, and the second was to take in a second museum/gallery - namely, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

The Ybor City of yesteryear was home to many immigrants, including significant Cuban, Spanish and Italian populations.  It was also home to one of the USA’s most important cigar manufacturing centres.  Tampa Sweethearts and Hav-a-Tampa were the most famous brands of the early 20th century.  Key West had been the USA’s cigar capital until 1886, when workers there started to unionize and the cigar kings moved their operations to Tampa.

A nice stroll around Ybor City to see its top sights was followed by a visit to the Photography Museum near the Tampa Riverwalk.

And, of course, the evening was topped off with another amazing FMEA concert!

A “David” day of touring is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you. :-)  But I’ve enjoyed just taking it easy here and limiting my sightseeing.

A monument to 9-11 in Ybor City.

Roosters have run of the house in Ybor City — and they are protected by the city’s bylaws.

While the large cigar production factories of yesteryear have shut down, there is still a significant retail cigar presence in Ybor City.

The Tampa Sweethearts cigar factory still stands on North 22nd Street in Ybor City.  This is indicative of the type of grand building that comprised the old factories.  The date on the top of the building says 1895.

The Ybor City of today is a trendy mix of cafes, galleries and bars.  This is a typical stretch of the store frontage in central Ybor.  We ate dinner in a small Ybor restaurant named West Ybor Barterhouse.

This yellow brick bakery in the heart of Ybor was built in 1923 to replace an earlier structure destroyed by fire.  It is now part of a collection of restored historical buildings comprising the Ybor City State Museum.

Typical turn-of-the-century immigrant homes adjacent to the Ybor City State Museum.

This statue in ___ Park, in the center of Ybor, pays tribute to the immigrants who came to the area in the 19th an early 20th centuries.

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts is a small museum situated in part of a cube-like building attached to the Rivergate Tower, of which I wrote in yesterday’s blog entry.

The interior of the cube building housing the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts is mostly comprised of an open atrium.  An art installation resembling a colourful web hangs there.

Another neat feature of the cube building housing the Florida Museum of Photographic Art is two four-story windows that look out upon the adjoining, cylindrical Rivergate Tower.

Another view of the Tampa Riverwalk, along the Hillsborough River.

Every year, a Florida state-wide girls SSAA (soprano 1, soprano 2, alto 1, alto 2) choir is compiled with top singers across the state from grade 7-12.  They prepare repertoire and then come together to practice as a group during the FMEA conference.  There were between 250-275 girls in the choir.  We were amazed at the support and enthusiasm of the almost-2000 teachers, parents and students gathered in the concert hall.  Music education in Florida is revered and celebrated.  Early in the concert, one of the choristers had to be taken out for medical attention.  The conductor used this time to talk to the audience about unity and diversity - it was quite moving.