William T. Morgan( -1952) was a native Georgian who learned the cigar trade while working at the Angel L. Cuesta cigar factory in Atlanta.  When Cuesta moved to Port Tampa in 1893, Morgan also made the move working at Cuesta, Rey & Co. until 1900 when he moved to Seattle, WA. In Seattle, together with fellow Cuesta, Rey & Co. employees Bernardo Sanchez and Elias Rodriguez they formed the Sanchez, Rodriguez & Co. cigar factory. In 1903 Morgan became sole owner of Sanchez, Rodriguez & Co. and changed the company name to Morgan Cigar Co.

In 1905 Morgan relocated to Tampa from Seattle with his two former partners who continued to work for him. Back in Tampa, the Morgan Cigar Co. established operations at a factory building at the corner of Fremont Ave. & Arch St. where they produced the Juan de Fuca brand.  From that location they moved in 1907 to this three story 8,600 sq. ft. building at 2802 N Howard Ave. on the corner of Howard Ave. & St Louis St. and operated here until 1910 when having outgrown it, they moved to the Berriman-Morgan factory which had been vacated by the Berriman Bros.Cigar Co. when they moved to the Gradiaz-Annis building in Ybor City.

The Marker on the premises photographed below reads:

“In 1907 William T. Morgan erected this three story cigar factory and soon his Juan De Fuca label attained wide acceptance throughout the country.  By 1910, the company had to move to larger quarters to accommodate 1,000 workers.  After Morgan vacated this building, it was occupied by six other cigar factories.   In 1991, Advanced Promotional Concepts, Inc., purchased the building and restored it to its original state.”

Wallace Reyes, PhD in his book Cigar City Architecture and Legacy states that other cigar manufacturers that reportedly occupied this building either totally or partially were the Exchange Cigar Co. (1911-1912), Francisco Bolaño & Co. (1914), M. Bustillo & Co. (1916-1918), Marsicano Cigar Co. (1920-1921), Louis Golovine & Co. (1924-1925) and Alvarez & Rogers (1936).  The Burgert Bros. collection pictures below, made available courtesy of the Hillsborough County Public Library System, include a 1921 picture when occupied by Marsicano Cigar Co. (1920-1921) and a 1932 picture when occupied by the Colonial Cabinet Co.

In 1924 Morgan Cigar Co. brought additional brands to its line of products when it acquired the F. Lozano & Son Co. The firm continued to expand when in 1942 it acquired the Arango & Arango Cigar Co. When William T. Morgan died in 1952 his son W. T. Morgan Jr. ( -1991) assumed the leadership of the company. In the 1956, when the excise tax hearings were held in Congress, W. T. Morgan Jr. was at the helm of the company and was a director of the Association of Cigar Manufacturers of Tampa .  In 1962 Morgan Cigar Co. ceased to operate and closed down when it was absorbed by Gradiaz, Annis & Co. who in 1964 sold its assets to the General Cigar Co.   According to Armando Mendez in his book Ciudad de Cigars: West Tampa, the primary reason Gradiaz, Annis & Co, bought the Morgan Cigar Co. in 1962 was to acquire its large inventory of prime Cuban leaf tobacco not available otherwise due to the recently imposed Cuban embargo imposed by President Kennedy. That was why just two years later Gradiaz, Annis & Co. sold the other assets it had acquired in the Morgan Cigar Co. purchase to the General Cigar Co.

Mendez states in his book that in the 1970s the old Morgan factory became a tobacco wholesale warehouse for Gonzalez & Sons. No reliable information has been found on the members of Gonzalez & Sons or its relationship with Gonzalez, Fisher & Co., firm that was dissolved on June 4, 1936 or with José Gonzalez Quintana and his brother Benito Gonzalez Quintana who supposedly came to Tampa from Puerto Rico representing the Puerto Rico Tobacco Marketing Cooperative Association or “La Marketin” as it was commonly known, in an effort by the tobacco growers on the island to promote among the cigar manufacturers in Tampa the use of tobacco leafs harvested in Puerto Rico as an alternative to leafs from Cuba. Its connection or the fact that it evolved into Gonzalez Habano Co. and later into Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. is also not verified, no such firm as Gonzalez Habano Co. was found in the Florida Department of State records and the now dissolved since 2020 Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. was not incorporated until April 25, 2001 by Wallace Reyes, President and Margarita J. Reyes, Secretary.

Public Records show that on October 24, 1991 John A. R. Grimaldi in representation of Columbia Bank sold this property to Advanced Promotional Concepts, Inc. who converted it to an office building. On July 31, 2025 Barbara Baker as President of Advanced Promotional Concepts, Inc. sold this property for a reported $3,750,000 to 2802 Howard LLC a limited liability company organized on June 24, 2025 and whose officers are Jarret Kass and Spencer Kass. The facilities are partially occupied by Advanced Promotional Concepts, Inc. and other tenants.