The El Reloj Cigar Factory and J.C. Newman Cigar Company

The El Reloj Cigar Factory and J.C. Newman Cigar Company. . , Side 1 , At its peak in the 1920s, Tampa had 150 cigar factories where 500 million cigars were rolled by hand each year. Tampa was known as the "Cigar Capital of the World." El Reloj is one of Tampa's most famous cigar factories., When it opened in 1910, El Reloj was reported to be the largest cigar factory in the world. It was designed for 1,000 cigar makers who could hand roll more than 250.000 cigars daily. Newspapers wrote that El Reloj "embodied every convenience [andl luxury known to modern commercial construction" and "represented the highest type of factory building.", El Reloj is exemplary of the Tampa cigar factory. which was a brick building oriented from east to west with three stories. a basement, and a tower., Because of its iconic clock tower. this factory is known as "EI Reloj or "clock" in Spanish. As few people owned clocks or watches when the factory was constructed. Ybor City residents used the bell from El Reloj's tower to tell time., El Reloj was built by E. Regensburg and Sons, which operated the factory until 1951. Julius C. Newman bought El Reloj in 1954, when he moved his cigar company from Cleveland to Tampa. Today. El Reloj is the last working cigar factory in Tampa. , (Continued on other side) , , Side 2 , (Continued from other side) , Born in Austria-Hungary in 1875, Julius C. (J.C.) Newman and his family came to the United States in 1888 in search of the American Dream. After they settled in Cleveland, Ohio. J.C.'s mother paid a small cigar factory $3 per month to teach her son the art of hand rolling cigars., Although J.C. became a superb cigar roller, he was laid off in a severe recession. Eager to help, J.C.'s mother persuaded the neighborhood grocery store to give her son an order for 500 cigars. J.C. made a cigar table from some old wood boards, borrowed $50 to buy tobacco. and converted the family barn into a one-man cigar factory. On May 5. 1895, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. was born., By 1910.J.C. Newman Cigar Co. was the largest cigar factory in Cleveland. In 1927, the company merged to become Mendelsohn and Newman Cigar Manufacturers, Inc. In 1953. J.C. sent his elder son. Stanford, to Tampa to investigate rolling cigars in "Cigar City." By the next year J. C. bought the El Reloj cigar factory and relocated his family business to Tampa. In 1997 Stanford changed the company's name back to J.C. Newman Cigar Co. In celebration of its 125th anniversary in 2020, J.C. Newman restored El Reloj, the last working cigar factory in Tampa.