Ponce History Museum
Museo de la Historia de Ponce
on Calle Isabel and Calle Mayor Cantera |
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 Museo de la Historia de Ponce
Location within Puerto Rico
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| Established | 1992 |
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| Location | Calle Isabel #53, SE corner of Isabel & Cantera Sts., Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Coordinates | 18°00′45″N 66°36′42″W / 18.012546°N 66.611729°WCoordinates: 18°00′45″N 66°36′42″W / 18.012546°N 66.611729°W |
| Type | History museum |
| Director | Jorge Alberto Figueroa Irizarry |
| Curator | Ms. Maruja Candal Salazar Neysa Rodriguez Deynes |
| Owner | Autonomous Municipality of Ponce |
| Website | Website |
The Museo de la Historia de Ponce (Museum of the History of Ponce) is a museum located in the historic Casa Salazar-Candal in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The museum depicts the city's ecology, economy, architecture, government, and elements of daily life. It seeks to promote the research, conservation, and dissemination of the historic heritage of Ponce and Puerto Rico.
Inaugurated in 1992, it was the first museum in Puerto Rico established to cover the history of the people of a town or city. It traces the city's history from the Taino Indians to today. The Museum was inaugurated under the administration of Mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago, as part of the tricentennial celebration of the founding of the city.
It is located in the historic district of the city, a short two-block walk from the central Plaza Las Delicias town square, at the southeast corner of Isabel and Mayor Cantera streets. The Museum proper is housed in the historic Casa Salazar-Candal but also includes the neighboring Rosali-Zapater house, which houses administratives offices of the museum, in addition to the empty lot that once held the residence of the Schuck Gelpí family. There are plans to expand the museum into the Casa Rosita Serrallés, an adjacent property.
The idea of creating a Ponce history museum dates back to the 1930s, following a citizens group's initiative, but the project did not materialize then. Interest in the proposal revived years later under Ponce's Secretariat of Culture. The plan visualized a museum to be constructed on the block bordered by Isabel, Mayor, Cristina, and Salud streets, and Casa Salazar and Casa Zapater, two historic homes, were acquired, as was the empty lot where Casa Shuck Gelpí had once stood. However, the project came to a standstill once again.
The plan was revived once again, but with modifications, at the end of the 1980s. This time the project came under the direction of Ms. Maruja Candal Salazar and Dr. Neysa Rodríguez Deynes (curator and founder). They worked in conjunction with a team of curators that included Lizette Cabrera Salcedo, Dr. José Molinelli, Alberto del Toro, and J. A. Figueroa Irizarry, as well as museum specialists Aníbal Sepúlveda, Néstor Barretto, and Jorge Carbonell, members of the Carimar Research Center. The four-year period from 1989 to 1992 saw the restoration of the Salazar and Zapater houses to serve as home to the Museum, and the completion of the research, planning, and design of its first four permanent exhibit halls of the museum, namely, ecology, panorama, economic activity, and architecture.
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