El Modelo (the model) was the largest, employing 225 workers with an annual payroll of $145,000. Cigars were manufactured on the third floor of the 3-story brick building with its long narrow windows.

News Mural inside old El Modelo Cigar Factory building chronicles over 120 years of history The mural features José Martí, who fought for Cuban Independence from Spain.

Jacksonville Cigarmakers Stop War TaxJACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 1. -- A majority of the cigarmakers of El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Company of this city voted to-night to discontinue the practice ...

By 1895, the city had become home to 15 cigar manufacturing companies and thousands of Cuban immigrants. It's largest, Gabriel Hidalgo-Gato's El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Company, employed 225 ...

The red-brick building, on the national historic register, started out as the El Modelo Cigar Factory. In the late 1800s, Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti visited the plant, exhorting workers to ...

A survivor of the May 3, 1901 Downtown Jacksonville Fire, 501 West Bay St. once housed one of the city’s most important industries in the 19th Century, the El Modelo Cigar Factory.

Early businesses include the Banes and Washington Lumber Dealership, the El Modelo Cigar factory, the Bergner and Engle Brewing Company, the Refrigerated Ice Works, carriage works, and beef ...