Ybor City Museum State Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ybor City Museum State Park |
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IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
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Front of the museum
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 Ybor City Museum State Park
Location in Florida
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| Location | Hillsborough County, Florida, USA |
| Nearest city | Tampa, Florida |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Governing body | National Park Service / Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
Ybor City Museum State Park is a cool state park located in Tampa, Florida. It's found in a historic area called Ybor City. The museum is inside an old building that used to be a famous bakery. This bakery was known for making delicious cuban bread.
Inside the museum, you can see the original ovens from the bakery. The museum teaches you about the history of the cigar industry and the Latin community. This history covers the years from the 1880s to the 1930s. There's also a beautiful garden at the museum.
Park rangers offer tours of the gardens and special small homes. These homes are called "casitas" and cigar factory workers used to live in them. The museum has exhibits, old photos, and a video. These show how Ybor City started and how cigars were made.
History of the Museum Site
The museum building has a very interesting past. It stands where one of the first bakeries in the U.S. to make Cuban bread was located. This bakery was called La Joven Francesca.
It was started in 1896 by Francisco Ferlita. He was an immigrant from Sicily who had Cuban, Spanish, and Italian roots. Back then, a loaf of bread cost only 3 to 5 cents. Most of the bread was sold to people living in Ybor City.
The Bakery's Journey
In 1922, a fire destroyed the bakery. Only the brick bread oven was left standing. But Francisco rebuilt the bakery even bigger than before. He added a second oven, and it became a main supplier of bread for the Tampa and Ybor area.
The bakery also became a popular meeting spot. People would gather there to drink Cuban coffee and hear the latest local news. In Ybor City, bread was delivered every morning, just like milk. Houses had a strong nail by the door. The delivery person would put the fresh loaf of bread right on this nail.
La Joven Francesca bakery closed in 1973. Soon after, it was fixed up and became a key part of the Ybor City State Museum complex. You can still see the original ovens inside the museum. These are the very ovens where the first Cuban bread was baked.
Today, La Segunda Bakery is the main producer of Cuban Bread in Tampa. It was founded by Juan Morè. He moved to Tampa, Florida, and opened La Primera Bakery in 1915.
