El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Company - Jacksonville, Florida, USA
N 30° 19.642 W 081° 39.864
17R E 436130 N 3355248
The El Modelo Block is located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Historically, it was the site of the El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Company, and later the Plaza Hotel. It is now used as commercial office space.
Waymark Code: WMC3K1
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2011
Views: 5
From the
Florida Division of Historical Resources website:
EL MODELO BLOCK 513 W. Bay St. 1886-1889. Eclectic. 3 stories, brick. The largest remaining structure in Jacksonville. Originally it housed El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Co., one of the largest employers within the city. Functioned as a hotel between 1915 and 1965. Office building. Private. N.R. 1980.
The El Modelo Cigar Manufacturing Company is listed on the Florida Division of Historical Resources' Florida Cuban Heritage Trail. Some additional information about this historic cigar company is available in the Florida Historical Society's "The Florida Historical Quarterly" published in 1975 (visit link).
Additional information is available from the Historic American Buildings Survey website (type in El Modelo Jacksonville in the Enter Search Terms box):
Building/structure dates: 1889 initial construction
Building/structure dates: 1955 subsequent work
Significance: One of the oldest of the few commercial buildings in Jacksonville to survive the May 3, 1901 fire downtown. The structure housed one of the City's most important industries in the nineteenth century, the El Modelo Cigar Factory, and was visited by the Cuban patriot Jose Marti.