Hacienda Buena Vista
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Hacienda Buena Vista
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The Manor House at Hacienda Buena Vista
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| Location | Barrio Magueyes, Rt PR-123, Km 16.8 |
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| Nearest city | Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Area | 482 cuerdas (approx. 468 acres) |
| Built | 1833 |
| Architect | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial and Ponce Creole |
| NRHP Reference # | 91001499 |
| Added to NRHP | October 17, 1994 |
 Museo Hacienda Buena Vista
Location within Puerto Rico
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| Established | 1987 |
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| Location | Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Coordinates | 18°5′4″N 66°39′16″W / 18.08444°N 66.65444°WCoordinates: 18°5′4″N 66°39′16″W / 18.08444°N 66.65444°W |
| Type | History museum |
| Owner |
Private: Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico. |
| Website | http://www.fideicomiso.org/ |
Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives (or Buena Vista Plantation in English), is a coffee plantation and estate in Ponce, Puerto Rico, established in the 19th century. The plantation was started by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833. It is now owned by the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust (Fideicomiso de Conservación), who operates it as a museum. It is located on 81.79 acres (331,000 m2) of fertile land that includes a humid subtropical forest some 7 miles (11 km) north of Ponce on Route PR-123, in Corral Viejo, a sub-barrio of Barrio Magueyes. The plantation house was built in the Spanish Colonial style, with the surrounding buildings being builtin the local Criollo style. It receives some 40,000 visitors every year. It covers an area of 482 cuerdas (approx. 468 acres).
The Hacienda is significant for various reasons. First, it contains the only remaining example of the Barker hydraulic turbine, which was the first reaction type turbine ever made. It was nominated as a Mechanical Engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in July 1994.
The second reason Hacienda Buena Vista is significant is that it offers one of the best remaining examples of a Puerto Rican coffee plantation. This is important because in the latter part of the nineteenth century the coffee produced in Puerto Rico and exported to Europe and the United States was considered among the finest in the world. It is said to have even been the favorite at the Vatican at the time. Hacienda Buena Vista is also significant because it shows the evolution of the coffee industry in the region. Various periods can be appreciated. These range from the cultivation of produce such as plantains (1833–1845); to the production of flour (from rice and corn) (1847–1872). These products were staples for the subsistence of the local population.
Hacienda Buena Vista was started as a truck farm to produce mostly plantains, bananas, corn and avocados, by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833. De Vives was a Catalonian immigrant arriving from Venezuela and he set up the farm to sell its produce in the Ponce market and in the sugarcane estates along the southern coast. Originally, the Vives estate covered 500 acres (2.0 km2).
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Wikipedia