Berriman Bros. Cigar Co. was owned by Matthew W. Berriman ( -1920) of New York City and his brother Edward "Ned" Berriman ( -1925) of Chicago, manufacturers of the Don Cosme, Jose Vila, La Sinceridad, La Evidencia, Marc Anthony, and Light It brands. After briefly operating a branch factory since July 1903 at the corner of Howard Ave. & State St., Berriman Bros. Cigar Co. closed its New York factory on October 31, 1903 and moved all their manufacturing operations to this brand new three-story 33,085 sq. ft. cigar factory building at 1403 N Howard Ave. on the northeast corner of Howard Ave. & La Salle St.  

Since their new facility would accommodate only some four hundred workers which Berriman Bros. Cigar Co. quickly outgrew, on May 22, 1910 they sold this building to the Morgan Cigar Co. for $110,000 and  moved their local manufacturing operation to the factory building occupied by Gonzalez, Fisher & Co. at 2311 18th St. on the southeast corner of 18th St. & 13th Ave. in Ybor City later occupied by Gradiaz, Annis & Co.  The Berriman Bros. Cigar Co. operated at the Gradiaz, Annis & Co. facility until 1929 when it merged with the Wengle & Mandell Cigar Co.

After an additional investment of $8,500 in renovations, the Morgan Cigar Co. moved from their location at 2802 N Howard Ave. here where they could accommodate up to one thousand workers and roll more than eleven million cigars a year.  The building was used continuously as a cigar factory from the time of its construction until 1961 when Morgan Cigar Co. was purchased by Gradiaz, Annis & Co. who in turn was acquired by General Cigar Co. in 1964.  In the 1970s the building was used as a tobacco warehouse by Gonzales & Sons and then sat empty for approximately twenty five years. 

In 1985, the owner at the time, Gonzalez & Sierra, Inc., sold the building to the Morgan Building Partnership formed by Dennis Mosman, Larry S. Hyman and Thomas G. Dupont.  On May 16, 1995 the partnerships sold the property to Historic Morgan Apartments, Ltd, who in February, 1999 sold it to the North Tampa Housing Development Corporation, Inc.  After title being transferred to several government agencies, in April 8, 2004 the City of Tampa, represented by its then Mayor Pam Iorio, sold the building to Nicholas Jammal of Jammal Engineering, Inc. 

The building was designated in 2004 as a national and local historic landmark and renamed the Berriman-Morgan Cigar Factory.  Its current owner, Nicholas Jammal, restored the building to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for the Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings.  In April 2008 the rehabilitated building earned the City-County Planning Commission's prestigious Jan Abell Award. The old factory building was for several years the home of Argosy University.  In 2020 it became the home of the St. Leo University Tampa Education Center.  In December 2023 I attended a social event held at this building hosted by St. Leo University and Nicholas Jamal and was able to take several pictures of the building's interior which I have added at the end of the gallery below.