Portugues Urbano
| Barrio Portugués Urbano | |
|---|---|
 Location of barrio Portugues Urbano within the municipality of Ponce shown in red |
|
| Country |
 United States
|
| Territory |
 Puerto Rico
|
| Municipality |
 Ponce
|
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.14 sq mi (3.0 km2) |
| • Land | 1.14 sq mi (3.0 km2) |
| • Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 5,886 |
| • Density | 5,163/sq mi (1,993/km2) |
| Source: 2000 Census | |
Portugués Urbano is one of the 31 barrios in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Canas Urbano, Machuelo Abajo, Magueyes Urbano, and San Antón, Portugués Urbano is one of the municipality's five originally rural barrios that are now also part of the urban zone of the city of Ponce. It was founded in 1953.
Portugués Urbano is an urban barrio located in the southern section of the municipality, north of the downtown Ponce Historic Zone area of the city of Ponce, but within the city limits of the city of Ponce.
It is bounded on the North by Camino de Ponce (Golf Club) Street, Majagua Street, and Arboleda Street, on the South by Idilid Street, Shangai Street, Diez Street, Cinco Street, Pico Dulce Street, and Paseo de la Cruceta, on the West by Novedades Street, the hills east of Ponce Cement and the future western branch of PR-9, and on the East by Río Portugues (roughly), PR-503 (roughly), Cayey Street, Cerro San Tomas Street.
In terms of barrio-to-barrio boundaries, Portugués Urbano is bounded in the North by Portugués, in the South by Canas Urbano and Segundo, in the West by Magueyes Urbano, and in the East by Machuelo Arriba and Sexto.
Río Portugués and the great Ceiba tree near the center of Ponce have long been associated with the first settlers of the region. During the 17th century the River marked the eastern boundary of a growing settlement than ran as far as Guayanilla Bay, a region that came to be known as Ponce, but which today is part of a neighboring municipality.
In 1824, Barrio Portugués appears for the first time in a list of the barrios of Ponce produced by Pedro Tomás de Córdova, and to whom we owe the first such listing of 497 Puerto Rico barrios in the town that existed at the time. However, the name Barrio Portugués does not show up in records of the municipality of Ponce until September 1821. In 1822, Barrio Portugués appears as one of the barrios of the settlement with a listing of names of people responsible for the supervision of the barrios of the municipality. In 1878, Manuel Ubeda y Delgado reported that in Barrio Portugués there were 155 families residing in 33 houses and 100 bohios. Portugués was then the seventh least populated of the 22 barrios then established in the municipality. The same author reports the existence of thermal baths in an area a little over two kilometers northeast of the city known as the Quintana Baths (Baños Quintana). The masonry building that housed the baths still exists on the northbound side of Puerto Rico Highway 503 in Barrio Portugués.
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Wikipedia