Did you know Greensboro used to have a thriving cigar industry? The above historical marker is found on South Elm Street, just north of the railroad tracks at Barnhardt Street. It denotes the existence of the cigar industry, dating it between 1903- 1955. At one time, there were 14 shops along South Elm Street. Greensboro's tobacco industry is well documented; however, google searches do not yield information about the cigar industry.
The O.Henry Magazine wrote about the industry in their November 2013 edition (p. 45, see here). In the article, the demise of the cigar industry is attributed to the rising popularity of cigarettes around the time of the world wars and the notion that "old men" smoked cigars. To appreciate the scope of the industry, in 1912, Roger Lang's cigar production company made over 20,000 cigars in April of that year. The O.Henry article goes on to say that Greensboro preferred to be known as a textile community and that the cigar industry likely lost their labor to the textile mills.
I tend to associate pipes with old men, not cigars!
Posted by: William Kendall | Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 04:25 PM