Industrial Porcelain Pendant Lights in Tampa Cigar Factories

For decades, the Tampa Bay area was known as the cigar capital of the United States. Vicente Martinez Ybor, a prominent Spanish-born cigar manufacturer moved his business from Cuba, to Key West and finally to a plot of land in Tampa Bay. Through the years, additional cigar-making companies sprouted up throughout the Tampa Bay area and many of their warehouses were lit with industrial porcelain pendant lights. As you can see in the photo above, these pendants were strategically placed to provide a directional beam of light over the tables occupied with workers rolling cigars. Toward the end of the 20th century and into the early 2000’s, increased taxes on tobacco products forced many of Tampa’s cigar factories to permanently close their doors.
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