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PONCE, PEARL OF THE SOUTH
ORNAMENTATION IN LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE IN PONCE
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Welcome
The competition for social status and public recognition led the wealthy to renewed architectural expressions befitting their personal achievements and social aspirations. Architectural models from great metropolitan cities such as Paris, France and obviously Madrid and Barcelona in Spain were adopted by the wealthy to reaffirm their status. The rapid construction was accelerated by natural disasters like the San Ciriaco hurricane in 1899 and the San Fermín earthquake in 1918, making large areas of said cities to become a blank canvas for the wealthy to build their new homes.
Plurality, elegance, ornate and eclecticism found on new construction were enabled by travel and mass immigration. The British brought English gardens, the French brought fashion, Catalan brought Modernisme. Far Eastern design inspiration is also seen in Ponce. Mosaics, arches, and glazed tiles became standards in the new architectural collection, whether at buildings like the Meat Market, also known as Plaza Juan Ponce de León or Casa Salazar Candal, to name a few.
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Text
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Image
Houses built around this time also display a wide variety of ornamentation, decorative arts, materials and finishes that were common world-wide at the time. Cement tile or mosaico hidráulico, was extremely popular; in concrete houses, the most elaborate and colorful design was used for balconies and living room, and simpler designs in private rooms. Elaborate wrought-iron balconies and grilles were often incorporated into doors, corners spurt stones, dividers, screens, and wainscots.
In Puerto Rico, the addition of a cement balcony used to be the first improvement that workers made to a wooden house, and it was fairly common to decorate this space with colorful hydraulic mosaics, while keeping wood flooring in the rest of the house. A wide variety in patterning and color from all over the world made it possible to achieve personalized effects on floor designs. The balcony on vernacular houses is above all a living space, at the time, a habitable space for extended periods. Its regular and rhythmic design and configuration reinforced the symmetry of traditional center-hall houses, and it was part of a spatial sequence that led from the public (facing the street) to the intimate (facing the patio).
Interior walls were exposed to the most diverse surface treatments. Paintings and murals – whether organic or geometrical, stucco – appliquéd or textured, glazed tile, etc., were all part of wall ornamentation. Enameled tiles or azulejos were mostly characterized by Sevillian motifs, geometric patterns, and rich hues. Decorative glass, with a wide range of colors were also used. These were embedded in lead or inserted in wooden doors, transoms, sidelights, ceilings and obviously windows.
The construction of successful and long-lasting structures in the Spanish colonized territories that could withstand the tropical storms and extremely wet maritime climate was of great importance. Given the tropical context, houses and buildings “needed to breathe”. The use of ventilation openings usually decorated with moldings and grilles allowed for it to happen.
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Text
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Image
Detailed fretwork mostly addressed aesthetic and utilitarian tasks but was also used as a way of expression. Wood transoms over doors and windows became an architectural characteristic. As per most of the architectural solutions, these and other ventilation solutions were designed with a dualistic characteristic to it. For example, doors with operable transoms, movable louvers and shutters that complied with design and functionality. Building galleries to the side and rear patios also had a particular characteristic, the presence of fixed wooden louvers to control the Ponce’s intense sunlight and drought.
The Interior sequence displayed another architectural ornament, the mediopunto. The Puerto Rican mediopunto could be described as an interior divider that usually consisted of two columns that allowed for a transparent yet apparent division that helps to visually but never fully separate adjoining spaces. These were typically located between the foyer and living room, or between dining room and living room.
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Text
Buildings and structures that were not residences also displayed eclecticism and well-thought-out design. In Ponce, new theaters began to appear, churches and temples of different denominations multiplied, cemeteries started expressing the wealth of the buried, and schools started to show that they could also be a part of this ornamented trend. In 1900 there were roughly 500 schools in Puerto Rico, but there were more than 3,200 by 1930. The mass construction of schools began after the Spanish-American War, when Puerto Rico became a colony of the United States and the new appointed government started to allocate money for education and school’s construction. Understandably, schools became the typology that has been associated with the US Colonization of Puerto Rico, since education was not a priority for Spain. A great example of these new school design is the Ponce High School.
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: Text
Places for worship where just as important at the time as they ever were. The Spanish Toleration Act of 1867 was approved, and in 1869 the first organized Protestant services in Puerto Rico were held in Ponce. In 1873 the construction of The Holy Trinity Church began with materials received from England as a present from Queen Victoria to her English subjects abroad. Another great example of Churches built around this time is the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ponce, by Antonin Nechodoma. This church displays eclecticism by integrating Neo-Gothic, Spanish Revival-Baroque and some Byzantine elements. After the 1918 San Fermín earthquake, the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe), underwent reconstruction by the famous Ponceño arquitect Francisco Porrata-Doria. The building design is mostly Neoclassical, although it maintains its colonial and gothic aspects on the interior.
Ornamentation in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Architecture in Ponce: About
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