Florida Brewing Company
| Florida Brewing Company Building | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Town or city | Tampa, Florida |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 27°57′32″N 82°26′45″W / 27.959°N 82.44594°WCoordinates: 27°57′32″N 82°26′45″W / 27.959°N 82.44594°W |
The Florida Brewing Company building is a historic brewery building that once housed Ybor City Brewing Company, which became Florida Brewing Company. It has been restored and converted into a law office. It is the tallest building in Tampa's Ybor City Historic District.
The Florida Brewing Company Building was built to house the Florida Brewing Company, which was founded in 1896 by cigar industrialistsVicente Ybor and Edward Manrara. The brewery building is six stories tall and remains the tallest building in Ybor City.
Florida Brewing Company was the first brewery in the state of Florida. When operational in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the building housed the leading exporter of beer to Cuba and was a leader in western Florida. After brewing operations ceased, the building was used for a variety of purposes, although it was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. Recently, the building was renovated and is now home to several commercial enterprises.
It was built on the Government Spring, which originally supplied water to the military men of Fort Brooke. This spring was valued by many cultures to be sacred. Florida's Paleo Indians believed the water in the spring to be of a sacred nature. They brought their sick and wounded to bathe in the water with the belief that it would cure their injuries and diseases. Nearly every Indian tribe respected the spring's holiness and thus would use the land around the spring as a peace zone, where no one would attack. Influenced by these tales and others in Europe, Spanish Conquistadors fell under the belief that there were crystalline fountains of youth hidden in the springs. Juan Ponce de León helped spread these rumors when he and a Spanish Armada set out to find a mythical fountain of youth. Many still believe the spring to have supernatural powers.
In its prime, The Florida Brewing Company produced 80,000 barrels of beer annually. It was the leading exporter of beer to Cuba in the U.S. and the premier brewery on Florida's west coast. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders visited for a beer in celebration after the Spanish–American War.
The brewery survived the adversities of the Prohibition and the Great Depression. However, the business closed in 1961 as a result of the embargo on Cuba and the opening of rival breweries by Anheuser-Busch and the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Tampa.
...
Wikipedia