The Morgan Cigar Co. was established in 1900 by William  T. Morgan, 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 until 1900 when he moved to Seattle, WA where together with fellow Cuesta, Rey employees Bernardo Sanchez and Elias Rodriguez the formed the Sanchez, Rodriguez & Co. cigar factory.  In 1903 Morgan became sole owner of Sanchez, Rodriguez & Co. and chenged 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 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.”

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), 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.

Soon after the end of WWI, Benito Gonzalez Quintana, came to Tampa from Puerto Rico representing the Porto Rican Tobacco Marketing Co.  This was a collaboration between tobacco growers on the island and cigar manufacturers in Tampa to promote the use of tobacco leafs harvested in Puerto Rico as an alternative to leafs from Cuba.  In July 1922 with his brother José and the assistance of Antonio Fisher, Benito organized the Gonzalez, Fisher & Co. cigar manufacturing company, makers of the Tampa Girl brand.  They leased a small space here from the Morgan Cigar, Co. to manufacture cigars for sale to customers in New York and Chicago.  In 1943, the company organized by the Quintana brothers changed its name to Gonzalez Habano Co. and in the late 1950's the company reorganized once again and changed its name to Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. which still operates to this date in Ybor City albeit on a small scale under the direction of Wallace Reyes, great-grandson of Benito.  Beginning in the 1950s, Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. owned this building for a few decades.

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. ​  

It is currently office space for Advanced Promotional Concepts who partially occupies the building and leases part for office space.