bangued's posts with tag: balay
|  | "In keeping what was, we know what we are."
This is the second installation of a two-part series of Balay collection.
You would notice that most Ilocano brick and wood-and-stone houses' facades aren't excessively ornamented as compared to the Tagalog and Visayan counterparts. Fernando Nakpil Zialcita aptly describes these houses in his article, Traditional Houses (Filipino Style): "Vigan streets wear the regional character of the Ilocano: sober and dignified, restrained and austere."
Sometimes I'd imagine Old Bangued circa 1850-1900, back when the town was in brick-red because of the houses, bridges, church and business buildings and even the plaza - all made out of brick or nadrillo. Unfortunately, Old Bangued never fully recovered after World War II. It never gained its charm back that some houses were never rebuilt and were just left to be grim reminders of the past.
Below are the four houses (there used to be lucky seven houses back in the days), World War II survivors as you may call them, that now stand alongside relatively new houses of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Balbuena House (N. Peñarrubia Street)
Barras House (W. Rizal Street)
Vasquez-Barros House (corner E. Actividad Economia and Arellano Streets)
Torreliza House (E. Actividad Economia Street)
Undoubtedly, these houses deserve landmark statuses - each with varying reasons and factors such as:
a. they are over 25 years old;
b. architectural styles;
c. connections with a significant event or person.
Vasquez-Barros House is over-qualified for a designation of landmark status because it is the only house with an intact wood-and-stone style of architecture in Bangued. It also used to be the house where Vasquez sisters, Doña Francisca and Doña Rosa (the generous persons behind the construction of the Shrine of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Camposanto) lived.
Most importantly, may these houses continue to be reminders for the present and future generations of what was once the Old Bangued. |
| | "These seemingly rock-solid houses are, in reality, as fragile as sand castles. Without a concerned and vocal citizenry, they must depend for their survival on how they fit in the modern marketplace."
This is the first installation of a two-part series of Balay collection.
I have now included a list of houses that had been damaged during World War II, demolished and thus, lost forever. These houses are the ff:
Tuazon House (E. Actividad Economia Street)
Bringas Compound (Taft Street)
Villamor House - which has been razed up recently (corner E. McKinley and N. Taft Streets)
Father Erasmo Alcantara House - now the site of Mormon Church (S. Capitulacion Street)
Pe Benito House - former site of Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils. and now foodcourt (W. Magallanes Street)
Unidentified House (N. Zamora Street near DWCB Compound)
Unidentified House (corner Washington and Santiago Streets)
On the other hand, Bangued luckily retained a little of its old-world charm, thanks to our concerned citizens. Though these houses have been restored and saved, their survival remains uncertain. Anyway, these houses are the ff:
Damian House (#37 W. Rizal corner W. Torrijos Streets)
Valera House (Don Virgilio Valera House) (corner Taft and E. Partelo Streets)
Torrijos House (corner E. Rizal and N. Gomez Streets)
Baroña House (corner Santiago and McKinley Streets)
Guy House (corner Partelo and Santiago Streets)
Torrijos House (Zone 7) (corner S. Santiago and Rizal Streets)
Co House (McKinley Street)
Purugganan House (corner Rizal and Vega Streets)
Baula House (corner Peñarrubia & Bowen Streets)
Valera House (Judge Francisco Valera House) (corner S. Zamora and E. Magallanes Streets)
Unidentified House (corner Bowen & Taft Streets)
Unidentified House (corner Taft and Villamor-Manzano Streets)
Among these houses, Torrijos, Purugganan and Baroña Houses deserve much attention. Torrijos House for one, beyond its Spanish colonial inspired architecture, used to house the very first transportation in Bangued -- the Torrijos Transportation via Bangued/Manila vice versa.
Please help us name the houses labeled as "Unidentified." You can also send in your contributions to this collection to banguedenio@yahoo.com. |
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