Historic houses in Santa Ana, Manila

This is a list of historic houses in Santa Ana, Manila, the Philippines.

Santa Ana is the only district in Manila which was spared from destruction during World War II. Civilians fleeing other parts of Manila sought refuge in this district during the war. Thus, many ancestral houses are still standing up to the present time. Dubbed as the "Forbes Park of Manila", some houses were owned by prominent personalities and wealthy families.

The Amparo-Santos House was built around 1931-1932, along Isabel Street. The original owners of the house were Amparo Lucero, who became Miss Cebu in 1907, and Valentin Santos Sr., who was the first Filipino manager of Manila Electric Company or Meralco. One of the famous personalities related to the Santos family was Jon Santos, a Filipino comedian and total entertainer.

Letter "A" carvings were eminent within the house, specifically at the entrance porch and into the doorways of each bedrooms inside the living room. Circular amulets of St. Benedict could also be noticed at each doors, windows, and eaves of the house. The house was 2nd Transition, Post 1860s, Bahay na Bato, wherein the ground floor was made out of masonry, second floor was made out of wood, and the roofing is in galvanizes iron sheet, with very thick gauge.

The Areopagita Residence was built by Leopoldo Areopagita during the early 1900s. Built in the typical bahay na bato fashion, the house has survived the war and a fire. It retained its original wooden windows with capiz shells, as well as the wooden carvings in the interiors. Original large wooden planks with wooden pegs remained intact as flooring in the dining room. Galvanized iron sheets form the roof. The lower exterior of the house is covered with linoleum with brick designs.

Across the Fernandez Ancestral House is the mission-style Batungbacal Ancestral House built in the 1930s.

Built in 1929, the Bautista-Rodil Residence's original design is reminiscent to a typical bahay na bato elevated flooring in which the original owners used to keep their livestock at the silong or the lower portion of the house. However, the house has undergone a drastic change by having a concrete foundation to accommodate the growing Bautista family. Its most prominent owner is Feliciano Bautista, a medical surgeon from Santa Ana who was acclaimed to be one of the first 100 licensed physicians in the country after the Physician Licensure Exam was introduced in the Philippines during the early 1900s. He later practiced his profession in his hometown of Santa Ana during 1926. In the present time, it now stands as a private residence to Feliciano's grandchildren. The house has retained most of its original materials and furniture because of the family's desire to retain its pre-war history. Prior to its renovation, its most striking features are the arch-shaped arcade situated at the facade, its style borrowing heavily from Mission-styled house common during the Commonwealth period. It is also characterized by ornamental eaves of each of the house's window. In its early years, the house is raised on stilts with a hallowed space under it. Two decades later, the house was extended to the right side and the original silong became a habitable part of the house. It is located inside a compound at the Tejeron Street in Santa Ana.

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Wikipedia