Chartered on September 7, 1891, El Centro Espa?ol was the first Latin club organized in Ybor City. As a mutual aid society, it provided early Spanish immigrants with a framework by which they maintained their identity and culture while supplying social privileges and death and injury benefits. Financed by stock pledges of $10 each by the original 186 Charter Members, the society opened the first club building in June 1892 on land purchased by Ignacio Haya at 16th Street and 7th Avenue. The membership soon outgrew the original building. By 1909 club officers embarked on a building campaign to build two new clubhouses - one in Ybor City and one to accommodate members in West Tampa. Completed in 1912, El Centro Espa?ol de Tampa sits on the site of the original structure on 7th Avenue. The long, two-story rectangular building houses a cantina and ballroom at its south end separated by a foyer and stair hall from the theater at its north end. The parapet of the stage house steps above the roof line of the main building at the north end of the site. The red brick edifice reflects the French Renaissance Revival style with Moorish and Spanish influence. In 1988 the Department of the Interior designated El Centro Espa?ol de Tampa a National Historic Landmark.

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Show me all markers in:  Tampa, FL  |  Hillsborough County  |  33605  |  Florida  |  United States of America

Roland M. Manteiga
Vicente Martinez-Ybor
B.F. Marcos Building
The Birth of Mutual Aid Societies in America
Site of First Ybor City Railroad Station
The Birth Of Ybor City
Hotel De La Havana
First Duel in Ybor City 1888
Orestes Ferrara
Tampa's First Cigar Factory

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