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Ybor City Walking Tour
Item 6 of 9
This is the site where once stood the Hotel de la Havana. The famed Hotel de la Havana was located in Ybor City in the pioneer days. The Hotel de la Havana was the first hotel constructed in the Latin Quarter of the city. This famed hotel was in operation for four years (1887-1891) until a fire destroyed it.

Hotel de la Havana Marker

Hotel de la Havana Marker

This 1889 map of 7th Ave. shows the location of the hotel as well as how the avenue appeared while the hotel was in operation.

This 1889 map of 7th Ave. shows the location of the hotel as well as how the avenue appeared while the hotel was in operation.
The Hotel de la Havana was a three-story structure. The known hotel was headquarters for immigrants coming over to work in the tobacco farms as well as Cuban exiles. The building burned to the ground in Ybor City's first great fire in November of 1891. There is a marker now there to commemorate the location for the great hotel, and was erected by Las Novedades restraunt.

In 2015 controversy arose over a second plaque erected on the site of the hotel dedicated to Jose Marti, the famous Cuban freedom fighter. The plaque stated that Marti had slept in the hotel when in exile in 1895. However, Marti was killed in battle in 1895, before the hotel began operations. The city and Marti Historical Trail association (Marti had traveled throughout Florida to raise funds for his fellow freedom fighters during his exile) are currently seeking to place a new and more accurate plaque in place of the inaccurate one. 

*Any images of the hotel should be added to this entry

"Hotel de la Havana." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed May 8, 2014. http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=8775