015. Don Luis Martinez Cigar Factory
Historic Marker Number 15 is located at 2010 Staples Avenue between Second and Third streets.In the early twentieth century, there were many cigar manufacturers in Key West. In 1909, a number of the large cigar factories, including the original Martinez Havana Company building located at 1110 Packer Street, were destroyed by a devastating hurricane.This building you are looking at, was Don Luis Martinez’s answer to that disaster and was designed to be hurricane proof. The structure used all the best building technology of the day. The factory walls were constructed of solid concrete blocks. These blocks were called ‘Indian blocks’ due to their rough exterior surfaces. At the time, they were considered one of the best materials to use to ‘fireproof’ a structure. In addition, oversized roof and floor beams were used to hold the building together in high winds.The round walled office attached to the rear of the building was originally constructed as an elevated cistern that protected fresh rainwater from flooding associated with hurricanes.The Martinez Havana Cigar Factory is one of only three masonry cigar factory buildings remaining in what was once the cigar capital of the United States.The Martinez Havana Company constructed this building, but due to a labor strike, went out of business by 1918. The factory, which reopened in 1919 as a branch of Tampa’s Santaella Company, operated until 1935 when the company suddenly left Key West.
034. Hirsch Cigar Factory
Historic Marker Number 34 is located at 930 Catherine Street on the corner of Grinnell Street.Ferdinand Hirsch came from New York and started manufacturing cigars in Key West in 1892. Hirsch acquired El Telegrapho brand of cigars from the Key West Havana Company the same year he arrived. The cigar label, featuring a portrait of Samuel Morse, was his most popular cigar brand for nearly a decade.Hirsch acquired a large brick structure, formerly occupied briefly by El Falcon Cigar Manufacturers, for his third factory. It was common for cigar manufacturers, large and small, to change hands frequently as businesses grew, brands were expanded, or business declined. The May 12, 1897, issue of the Tobacco Leaf, a prominent newspaper for cigar makers, stated the facility was ‘probably one of the finest trade edifices in the State’. The factory at Catherine and Grinnell streets was Hirsch’s largest cigar factory on the island.The cigar industry experienced a number of prolonged labor strikes in the early 1890s that were encouraged by Spanish agents from Cuba in an effort to disrupt cigar production and donations by Cuban émigré cigar makers to support Jose Marti’s revolutionary plans. These devastating strikes and disruptions in production convinced Hirsch and two Key West manufacturers, Celestino Palacio and Charles Baker, to consolidate, establishing the Celestino Palacio Trust. It allowed them to collectively purchase bulk tobacco at a lower price while consolidating shipping and distribution of cigars. Unfortunately, Hirsch died in 1901 and the Trust was dissolved.Hirsch only owned his impressive factory for a mere four years before he passed away. After his death, the building rotated hands between seven other cigar manufacturers including Eduardo Hidalgo Gato (see Historic Marker #17). During the Depression, the vacated building was used to teach unemployed Key West women how to sew. Presently, it serves as a storage warehouse, and is only one of five large cigar factories still standing in Key West.
020. Gato Village Pocket Park
Historic Marker Number 20 is located at 616 Louisa Street between Simonton and Calais streets.You may be wondering what a ‘pocket’ park is. It simply means a small green space that has been reserved for public enjoyment.This park has a special history as it was part of a unique community of employee housing built by Eduardo Hidalgo Gato in the 1880s. Gato Village, also known as Gatoville or Barrio Gato, consisted of 40 cigar makers’ cottages that were built around the Gato Cigar Factory on Simonton Street (Historic Marker #17).Key West was at the highpoint of its cigar manufacturing and there was a shortage of both skilled cigar makers and housing. Gato built the community to attract the best cigar artisans to his factory. Unlike many of the company housing springing up throughout the country during the industrial age, Gatoville encouraged entrepreneurial endeavors. The community had its own bakery, laundry, billiards hall, grocery and ice cream shop.The structure at the back of the park is a representation of the facade of the cigar maker’s cottage built on this lot in 1897. The occupants were Fernando and Serafina Gato. Fernando was a cigar maker at the factory. Fernando and Serafina raised their daughter, Mary Gato, in the cottage and, before they moved out, saw Mary wed Joe Madiedo. Joe had moved to Key West as a young man. Many of his family were cigar makers in Tampa.Based on Joe Madiedo’s memories of the years he spent at the cottage, Fernando’s granddaughter, Patricia Gato Madiedo, and her husband, Bruce Neff, were able to build the cottage facade and donate it to the City of Key West.The park is also home of the World's largest cigar sculpture donated by the Fuente family, Bruce Neff and Patricia Madiedo.Arturo Fuente escaped the aftermath of the Cuban revolution in 1902. He spent the next 6 years living near Gato Village learning the art of rolling cigars. He moved to Tampa and started his own small cigar factory. Today his family owns and operates the largest cigar factory in the world based in the Dominican Republic.
017. Gato Cigar Factory
Historic Marker Number 17 is located at 1100 Simonton Street at the corner of Simonton and Amelia streets.This is the second Gato Cigar Factory located on this site. The first factory was a three-story wooden building constructed in 1871. The first floor of the factory was used for receiving tobacco and distributing cigars. The second story consisted of rows and rows of benches and rolling tables where workers produced a wide range of cigars. In front of the workers was a raised lectern for a reader, who was paid by the factory workers to read books, poetry and daily newspapers. On the third floor, the tobacco was both stored and sorted and the best grade of tobacco leaves was chosen for the outer layer of the cigars.In 1915, the original building was destroyed by fire. Construction of a new fireproof factory was started in 1916 and completed in 1920. During the construction of the new factory, Eduardo Hidalgo Gato temporarily moved his operations to several buildings on the island that had been vacated by the cigar companies that had relocated to Tampa.When Gato opened his new factory in Key West, he did everything he could to insure that he had the best cigar artisans working under his roof. To better the lives of his workers, he built a city of 40-cigarmaker cottages around his factory, introduced the first street car system, created a hospital and supported a baseball league.The average day of factory workers was very structured. Sorters would arrange the Cuban tobacco leaves into twenty shades of brown. The most expensive leaves were used for the wrapper. The rollers knew exactly how many tobacco leaves to roll into cigars each day. All the rollers had their own rolling tables and were paid by the number of cigars they crafted each day. A good roller could produce an average of 300 cigars a day.The factory itself was illuminated only by natural sunlight. Cigar factories were typically built on a North/South axis so the windows faced East/West, thus maximizing the hours of sunlight.In 1894, the Gato Cigar Factory employed 500 workers and produced 70,000 cigars every single day. In December 1899, the factory output reached 400,000 cigars a week. From 1895 to 1900, Key West averaged $2,300,000 a year in cigar exports.
021. Gatoville
Historic Marker Number 21 is located on the 1100 block of Simonton Street between Louisa and Catherine streets.Between 1880 and the early 1900s, there was an influx of Cuban expatriates into Key West. They were escaping the oppression of the Spanish Colonial rule of Cuba. With the arrival of so many skilled cigar makers and their families that could work in the island’s 200 cigar factories in Key West, there occurred a housing shortage. These circumstances provided the basis for Gatoville to be born.Eduardo Hidalgo Gato created the first successful industrial community in the United States. Gato needed a way to make sure he had the best rollers, in turn making the best cigars, working for him. He knew that by building 40 cigar makers’ cottages in the neighborhood of his factory, he would attract the most talented workers and they would produce some of the finest cigars.The cigar makers’ cottages were simple wooden structures, most of them were two rooms, with a porch facing the street and an outhouse. These may not sound like much in today’s standards, but during the time, these cottages were considered a luxury.Not only did Gato provide a place for his workers to live, but also he supported their entrepreneurial and community spirit. Gato encouraged them to start businesses of their own, ranging from groceries and saloons to confectionary shops and private schools. This was vastly different from most other industrial communities that would emerge around the country.
030. La Te Da
Historic Marker Number 30 is located at 1125 Duval Street between Amelia and Catherine streets.The home of cigar manufacturer Teodoro Perez will forever be a part of Key West’s strong ties to Cuba. Perez was the owner of the Perez Cigar Factory, one of the largest factories in the 1890s. This is one of the few grand estates remaining that was built by a prominent cigar factory owner. Most of these impressive homes were either razed by fire, damaged by storms, or were replaced in the name of progress.The house is best known for Jose Marti’s speech from the second-floor terrace during his visit to Key West on May 3, 1883 to address thousands of Cuban sympathizers. Perez welcomed the man who had become the symbol of Cuba’s bid for independence from Spain into his home to raise support and funds for the revolution.Marti is acclaimed as a national hero in the Cuban Revolution and spoke and wrote passionately for the political and intellectual independence of all Latin Americans. His life’s works were an integral part of the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain.Today the former home of Teodoro Perez is La Te Da, a world-renown hotel, restaurant and cabaret.
019. The Speakeasy
Historic Marker Number 19 is located at 1117 Duval Street on the corner of Duval and Amelia streets.You are looking at the home of Caribbean rumrunner Raul Vasquez. Vasquez purchased the home in 1920. He was a well-liked member of the community and was highly regarded by his neighbors. Vasquez was an infamous rumrunner throughout most of the Prohibition Era, making frequent trips to Cuba to bring back as much liquor as possible.On one particular trip, Vasquez brought back the elaborately carved balustrade that adorns the porch. It was made in Sagua la Grande, Cuba. Why he did not have one of Key West’s skilled carpenters make it will always remain a mystery. His daughter, Mary, reported that when he brought the balustrade home, her mother was upset because he had filled up cargo space with that instead of the liquor he was intended to carry.It has been theorized that Raul chose this elaborate balustrade for his house not simply for decoration, but as an advertisement for the speakeasy he ran in the back of his home. Dubbed ‘The Florence Club’ because, according to Raul, a few of his patrons had wives named Florence, the club was a successful and popular speakeasy during Prohibition. When Raul was out of town, which he often was, the club ran on an honor system. There was a large marble slate on which the patrons kept track of what they drank. At a convenient time, Raul would settle up with them. According to Raul ‘No one ever stole a single bottle’.
063. San Carlos Institue
Historic Marker Number 63 is located at 516 Duval Street between Fleming and Southard streets.The San Carlos Institute is a Cuban heritage center founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles who came to Key West to plan the campaign for Cuba’s independence from Spain. José Dolores Poyo and Juan María Reyes, two distinguished leaders of the island’s Cuban community, proposed the establishment of an organization dedicated to promoting Cuban cultural values and patriotic ideals. The San Carlos was principally supported by the contributions of the Cuban tobacco workers of Key West who donated a substantial portion of their modest wages to the Institute.The San Carlos Institute was inaugurated on November 11, 1871, in a small wooden building located on Ann Street. It was named after Cuba’s Seminario San Carlos, a place of higher learning renowned for its academic excellence.Education and preservation of cultural values were the Institute’s primary missions. Classes were taught in English and Spanish to children of all races. The San Carlos thus became one of the nation’s first bilingual and integrated schools.The San Carlos moved to larger quarters on Fleming Street in 1884. Two years later, the building burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1886 that destroyed much of Key West. Civic leader Martin Herrera led the effort that rebuilt the San Carlos on a spacious lot, at its present location, fronting Duval Street in the heart of Key West’s historic district in 1890.Many legendary figures of Cuba’s independence movement addressed the exile community at the San Carlos. First among them was José Martí, Cuba’s legendary patriot and poet, who so loved the San Carlos that he called it ‘La Casa Cuba’.When Martí first arrived in Key West, his first mission was to try to unite the various factions of the exile community. He met with each leader individually and on January 3, 1892, he addressed a massive gathering at the San Carlos and announced that a united front would be established to lead the effort for Cuba’s independence. This led to the establishment of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano that encompassed the ideals and aspirations of a united exile community. They planned and organized the War of Independence that eventually succeeded in ridding Cuba of Spanish colonial rule.Jubilant exiles gathered at the San Carlos on May 20, 1902, to celebrate Cuba’s independence. The Cuban people held the San Carlos as a treasured relic. They were heartbroken when the San Carlos was damaged beyond repair by a hurricane that devastated Key West in 1919. Efforts immediately began to rebuild the San Carlos.San Carlos president José Renedo led a delegation to Havana that secured $80,000 from the Republic of Cuba for the reconstruction of the Institute. Francisco Centurión, one of Cuba’s most prominent architects, designed the present two-story building that incorporates many elements of Cuba's architecture: spacious rooms, high ceilings, graceful curves and arches, marble stairways, louvered windows, hand-crafted mosaics and floors of checkered Cuban tile. The building opened on October 10, 1924. It was a magnificent edifice and referred to by many as ‘The jewel of Key West’.The San Carlos thrived during subsequent years. Its school continued the tradition of academic excellence under the direction of Mrs. Benildes Sánchez, who served as the San Carlos principal for 25 years. The Cuban government paid the salary of a Spanish-speaking teacher while the State of Florida paid the salary of an English-speaking teacher.Everything changed when a communist dictatorship seized power in Cuba in 1959. The financial assistance provided by the Cuban government ceased, and despite valiant efforts by some civic leaders in Key West, the local community alone was not able to sustain the aging building. Threatened with structural and financial collapse, the school closed its doors in 1973 after the building was condemned for structural deficiencies. The building remained closed for almost two decades. During this period, many of the San Carlos’ books and records were lost to the elements or to vagrants who sought shelter in the vacant building.When a portion of the San Carlos’ facade collapsed in 1981 injuring a passing tourist, some called for the building’s demolition. Other sought to restore the building as a commercial theater. Some Cuban residents of Key West and Miami sought to stop the plans for commercial development of the property, but the courts ruled against them. In 1985, in a last-ditch effort to save the San Carlos as a Cuban historical landmark, the Cuban residents of Key West and Miami appealed to Florida’s Hispanic Commission for relief. They put up a valiant effort to save the building from the forces of commercial development and eventually were able to solidify the historic importance of the building and raise the funds for the structure’s complete renovation. Community leaders, architects, builders, and artisans donated their skills to the restoration pro bono.A beautifully restored San Carlos Institute opened on January 4, 1992, exactly one hundred years from the day when José Martí delivered his first address at the Institute. Today, the San Carlos serves as a historical archive, classroom, display gallery, community gathering place, and public theater.
031. Key West Cigar Capital
Historic Marker Number 31 is located at 540 Greene Street between Duval and Simonton streets.The production of hand-rolled cigars was Key West’s largest and most influential industry during the nineteenth century, that began with William Wall’s factory in 1831 (Historic Marker #13). For several decades, Key West found itself in the right place and right time to capitalize on the growing worldwide demand for quality cigars.At the time, Spain was engulfed in a protracted revolution in Cuba, the ‘pearl’ of its colonial empire. Financially drained from seven wars and imperialist expeditions to Africa and the Caribbean, the Spanish government began selling tobacco on the international market. The proceeds were vital to support its troops in Cuba and to crush the revolution there.Meanwhile, conditions were ideal for Key West’s development as a leader in cigar manufacturing. Thousands of Cuban expatriates fled to Key West to escape Spain’s oppression of their home country. Key West’s population increased dramatically. Many of the new immigrants were skilled cigar makers, eager to start anew. In addition, high tariffs were placed on cigars exported from Cuba. Both these factors made it possible for Key West to produce a cigar with the same tobacco and the same skilled cigar work force for a third of the price of a cigar purchased from Cuba.Key West’s cigar industry exploded. It thrived and easily overcame hurricanes, fires and limited transportation. In the 1890s, at the peak of the industry, there were two hundred cigar factories. Some were so large that they covered nearly a city block. Others were small or modest producers that manufactured cigars in wooden houses called ‘buckeyes’.A skilled cigar roller could hand-roll 300 cigars per day, or in excess of 100,000 cigars per year. Key West was producing 100,000,000 hand-rolled cigars a year and was recognized as the ‘Cigar Capital’ of the world.This city block where you are standing was occupied by the Seidenberg Factory, which consisted of four large factory buildings. In 1885, ten cigar factories occupied the blocks facing this Historic Marker. All the buildings were lost in the Great Fire of 1886 (see Historic Marker # 28)
