The Thompson & Co. Cigar Factory in Bartow, which teetered on the edge of demolition just a year ago, has been listed among the state’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Sites for 2011.
The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation announced the annual list Friday. Kim Fairall of the Florida Trust said 11 sites were nominated, and all were included in the 2011 list.
The factory was built in 1925 along Third Avenue near East Church Street, where workers with the Thompson company hand-rolled cigars until the early 1960s, when the business closed.
After that, ownership passed to the county and it became a distribution site for surplus government food. (Lakeland Ledger, http://www.theledger.com/article/20110521/NEWS/110529920/1134?Title=Historic-Bartow-Cigar-Factory-on-Endangered-Site-List)
The site was listed in the May/June 2011 edition of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation magazine.
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