page_title: History of Tampa, Florida
section_title: Italians
hierarchical_section_title: History of Tampa, Florida / Late 19th Century growth / Cigar industry / Ybor City / Immigrants / Italians
caption_attribution_description: English: The old Ferlita Bakery, now the Ybor City State Museum.
context_page_description: The modern history of Tampa, Florida, can be traced to the founding of Fort Brooke at the mouth of the Hillsborough River in today's downtown in 1824, soon after the United States had taken possession of Florida from Spain. The outpost brought a small population of civilians to the area, and the town of Tampa was first incorporated in 1855.
  Growth came slowly as poor transportation links, conflicts with the Seminole tribe, and repeated outbreaks of yellow fever made development difficult. The Civil War and Reconstruction caused the city government to disincorporate for over a decade.
  In the 1880s the construction of the first railroad links laid by Henry B. Plant brought the development of thriving cigar and phosphate industries. The founding of the cigar-centered neighborhood of Ybor City in 1885 brought an influx of Cubans, Spaniards, Italians, and other immigrants. Tampa's population jumped from less than 800 residents in 1880 to over 15,000 in 1900, making it one of the largest cities in Florida.
  By the 20th century Tampa emerged as a modern financial, trade, and commercial hub.
context_section_description: Starting in the late 1880s, many Italian and a few eastern European Jewish immigrants also arrived. These new arrivals had difficulty breaking into the insular cigar businesses, so many opened businesses and shops that catered to the cigar workers.
  The majority of Italian immigrants came from Alessandria Della Rocca and Santo Stefano Quisquina, two small Sicilian towns with which Tampa still maintains strong ties. In 1896, Sicilian Francisco Ferlita established what is likely the earliest U.S. bakery to produce Cuban bread, now the site of Ybor City Museum State Park.
caption: Ferlita Bakery
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