Headquarters
The Welfare House
(Asilo de Beneficencia), headquarters for the
Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, is the first monumental
building constructed at the Ballajá Quarter
in Old San Juan.
In 1838, Governor Miguel López Baños proposes
to the Municipal Government the construction of a seclusion
house for imprisoned women. In 1840, architect Pedro García
presents the Municipal Government his blueprints and budget.
The following year, Santiago Cortijo, engineer commander,
is entrusted with the construction of the project. Artillery
Captain José de la Pezuela takes charge of the construction
work, while García and Cortijo start working in reconstruction
projects in the city. The original project had been enlarged
so as to build a general establishment for public welfare.
The construction of the Welfare House, as it was generally
known, started in 1841, and in 1844, before its completion,
it opened its doors to the needy. In 1846 the blessing of
the chapel takes place, the first Mass being celebrated on
November 18. The building was completed in 1848 under the
government of Juan Prim, Field Marshal.
The building is of a rectangular
shape with its branches distributed around two great patios,
with a second story in between them. It consists of two
stories on its posterior side, taking advantage of a lowering
of the land. The main façade consists of just one
story of Greco-Roman style of the Doric-Roman order.
During its first years, insane persons,
inmates, prostitutes, old people, beggars, invalids, orphans,
stray young people and other unfortunates all lived together
in the Welfare House. In 1858 steps are initiated for the
segregation of the insane. In 1872 the Institute was declared
a provincial institution, being then transferred to the
Parliament. Institutional reforms are immediately started
and, as a consequence, the building undergoes minor repairs
and improvements. It is during those years that Dr. Manuel
A. Alonso, initiator of our literary “criollismo” and
patriarch of Puerto Rican literature, occupies the seat
of Director of the Welfare House.
From 1896 to 1897, in answer to measures
initiated in 1879, a second story on the front part of
the building is constructed. Construction foreman Luis
G. Rubio was in charge of the project, adopting the architectonic
style that predominates in the façade, with round
arches on the top floor windows, in contrast with lintel
bays with individual cornices on the lower floor. The front
door is accentuated with eight Doric columns, which end
on a triangular gable.
During the first two decades of this
century, the building is mainly used for the mentally sick,
and the structure undergoes periodic modifications. The
Department of Health occupies the building from 1923 to
1929, when the U.S Army takes possession of the same for
military purposes. During the ensuing decade, the military
removed the floor tiles, ceilings, wooden stairways and
masonry and replaced them with reinforced concrete. They
built two reduced symmetric wings, complementing its present “E” shape
in the second floor, and added the garages on the abutting
West side of the lot.
On November 17, 1978, the U.S. General
Services Administration deeds the building to the Government
of Puerto Rico. The building was abandoned and started
to rapidly deteriorate until 1985 when Governor Rafael
Hernández Colón
announced that the building was soon to be restored and will
serve as headquarters for the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture,
a project that took place under the direction of architect
J.R.C. Davis Pagán
The formal inauguration in October
1992 coincided with the celebration of the Fifth Centennial
of the Discovery of America and Puerto Rico. The main purpose
of this project points towards the conservation of our
national patrimony and the remodeling of the Ballajá Quarter,
rescuing it from forgetfulness and imparting sense to this
important urban space that has been defined as the institutional
sub-sector with the most monumental scale in the city.
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