Since 1982, when the Ybor City Museum Society was established as a Citizens' Support Organization (CSO) for the Ybor City Museum State Park, it has worked in many ways to support activities and programs at the site. Until 1998, the Society operated solely with volunteer support. In that year, it hired its first Director, a museum professional who oversaw the opening of the Centro Ybor Museum (in the restored Centro Espanol club building), a 2,000 square foot space housing small exhibits on the cigar industry, social clubs, and theatre in old Ybor. The Centro Ybor Museum receives over 36,000 visitors yearly.

In recent years, staff additions by the Society have facilitated the expansion and preservation of the site. The latest such effort is the move of five casitas (cigar workers' houses) to property adjacent to the site. One of these will be restored and used as a museum store and temporary exhibition space. The other four, recreating an historic streetscape, will be leased as retail space to compatible businesses and to help revitalize the community, as well as providing income for the Society and its activities. These activities include:

Modernization
The Society is currently undertaking the modernization of the exhibits in the Museum. In the near future, it is hoped that much of the Ferlita Bakery (the primary building which houses the Museum) will be reinstalled to reflect contemporary museum practice, with the installation of new lighting, graphics, cases, and interpretive material.

Oral Histories
The collection of oral histories is an ongoing project of the Society. Due to the displacement of many former residents of this historic neighborhood, there is a pressing need to record their stories. The staff take oral histories whenever the opportunity arises. Many will be transcribed and made available for future scholarly research. A long-term goal of the Society is the publication of selections from the Oral Histories Collection.

Collections
In recent years, the permanent collection of the Society has grown and diversified. Artifacts and photographs -- many never before exhibited or studied -- yield vital information about the people, trades, folkways, and lifestyles of Ybor City, from 1886 to the present day. A high-priority initiative of the Museum staff is the cataloguing and preservation of objects in these collections, with the goals of exhibiting them and making them available for scholarly study.

Education
Thousands of schoolchildren visit the Ybor City Museum State Park each year. Future plans include increasing the amount of classroom study materials and videos, adding museum theater, living history, field trips, and museum publications.

The Centro Ybor Museum
A 2,000 square foot 'mini-museum' located in the historic renovated Centro Espanol building, three blocks from the Ybor City Museum State Park. This space houses exhibits on the cigar trade, social clubs, and theatre of old Ybor City. It also contains a museum store and the Ybor City Visitor Information Center.

The Museum
The Ybor City Museum State Park is a state historic park consisting of the Ybor City Museum, housed in the Ferlita Bakery building (a neighborhood bakery operated by the Ferlita family, Italian immigrants who established the business at that location in 1896), the Casita, and the Garden.

The State Park contains permanent exhibits on Vicente Martinez Ybor, the founding and early history of Ybor City, the cigar industry, the social clubs of the city, and the Ferlita Bakery itself. Two years ago, the Ybor City Museum Society initiated changing exhibitions in the Museum space; these change twice yearly. The Ybor City Museum also houses a museum store with a variety of items for sale reflecting the ethnic heritage of the community, the cigar trade, and the site's history.

The Casita is actually one of seven small cottages, built for cigar workers' families that are located at this historic site. Three were built around 1895 and, as such, are among the earliest structures in Ybor City. Originally located on 5th Avenue, they were moved to their present location in 1976 as part of a preservation initiative that included the Ferlita Bakery and a number of other structures in the community.

The Garden at the Ybor City Museum State Park is a green and restful version of the Mediterranean-style patios seen in the late 19th century. It has been adapted to its present location by the inclusion of Florida flora (including tropical fruit trees), statuary, and a fountain.