from Spain to the bustling factory town of Ybor City in 1891 established El Centro Español as the first of several ethnic social club and mutual aid society organizations. El Centro Español served as the organizational model for its later counterparts such as El Centro Asturiano, El Circulo Cubano, L'Unione Italiana, and others. These clubs grew to play vital roles in Ybor City's development and were of particular importance in welcoming and orienting new arrivals to the immigrant community. In exchange for membership dues, they offered not only social, cultural, and recreational opportunities, but educational programs and health care. El Centro Español in 1904 went so far as to build their own hospital, the Sanatorio del Centro Español, which was in its day among the top medical facilities in Florida. The organization's first clubhouse, an ornately constructed frame structure flanked by two towers, was built in 1892 on the site of the present Centro Español building, and featured a theater, dance hall, canteen, soda fountain, and classrooms, where English courses were offered. The club's membership expanded rapidly, surpassing 2,600 people by 1908, and soon after outgrew their facility. The club replaced their original clubhouse with the building today known as El Centro Español de Tampa in 1912. In the same year, the organization established a second clubhouse, El Centro Español de West Tampa, to serve the Spanish population of West Tampa. After several decades of prosperity and growth, El Centro Español and the other area social clubs entered a period of decline. Factors such as Prohibition, the Great Depression, and restrictions in immigration curtailed the influx of potential new membership, and sent much of the area's existing population looking for work elsewhere. By World War II, much of the organization's roles in terms of health care and social welfare were absorbed by government and private interests. The membership base declined further as the now second and third generationSpanish-Americans more freely interacted with the rest of the population and more closely identified with American culture. In 1983, the organization consolidated their remaining membership to the West Tampa clubhouse, and the Centro Español de Tampa building was sold. After sitting vacant for several years, it was and now houses Jason Fernandez's Carne Chophouse restaurant. The West Tampa clubhouse houses and its program.
Architecture
The Centro Español building was designed by Francis J. Kennard, an architect who was responsible, either solely or in part, for many Tampa Bay area structures now considered to be of historic importance, including Hillsborough High School, St. Andrews Episcopal Church, and the Belleview-Biltmore Hotel. Kennard employed the French Renaissance Revival style in his design for the building, with heavy influence from Moorish Revival and Spanish Mediterranean Revival styles. The structure features masonry construction of red brick with white stone accents. The shape is a basic rectangle, exposed on all but the west side, consisting of a two and 1/2 story-tall main block, with an attached rear wing of three and 1/2 stories. The building's south facade along 7th Avenue features an arched main entrance in Moorish style with cast-iron trim. The long, east facade resembles a palazzo, an effect commonly utilized in Renaissance Revival designs, and also incorporates the use of cast-iron balconies.
