Balay Negrense

Balay Negrense
Victor Gaston Ancestral House
Established	October 6, 1990
Location	Cinco de Noviembre Street, Silay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines
Coordinates	10°48′00″N122°58′23″E / 10.800045°N 122.973156°E
Type	lifestyle museum
Director	Betsy Gazo
Curator	Myrna V. Dequiña, Edsie Sazon-Valladarez
Public transit access	pedicab, tricycle from any point in the city
Website	www.balaynegrense.com

Last updated November 21, 2024

The Balay Negrense (Hiligaynon for Negrense House), also known as Victor Fernandez Gaston Ancestral House, is a museum in Silay City, Negros Occidental in the Philippines, showcasing the lifestyle of a late 19th-century Negrense sugar baron. It is notable for being the first museum to be established in the province of Negros Occidental.^[1]

History

The Balay Negrense was originally the ancestral house of Victor F. Gaston, a son of Yves Leopold Germain Gaston and Prudencia Fernandez. The elder Gaston is credited as one of the pioneers of sugarcane cultivation in this portion of the Philippine archipelago. A native of Normandy in France, he married a Filipina from Batangas where he initially began experimenting with sugar production before relocating to Negros.

Built around 1900,^[2]^[3]the house was constructed when Victor Gaston's wife died and during the time when he was residing in his father's hacienda, Hacienda Buen Retiro. The structure housed Victor Gaston and his twelve children from 1901 until his death in 1927. Left unused by the family, the structure was abandoned in the mid-1970s and fell into disrepair until one of the heirs, Msgr. Guillermo Ma. Gaston, together with a group of concerned Negrenses formed what would later become the Negros Cultural Foundation. In 1992, Msgr. Guillermo Ma. Gaston donated the Victor Gaston house to the Philippine Tourism Authority (now known as the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority). With donations from prominent individuals and a PhP5,000,000.00 assistance from the Philippine Tourism Authority, the structure was repaired and furnished with period furniture and fixtures. The museum was officially inaugurated on October 6, 1990. Pursuant to Board Resolution No. 1 dated March 8, 1994, of the National Historical Institute of the Philippines (National Historical Commission of the Philippines), it was listed as a heritage house. In 2023 the museum was closed temporarily, as the house needed major restoration and was returned to members of the Gaston family.^[4]

Architecture

The house is of the type called Bahay na bato, literally "house of stone", however, reflecting American colonial influences, the lower storey is not constructed of stone but of concrete. The foundation posts are made out of trunks of the balayong tree, a local hardwood; the floorboards are of the same material. The house's upper storey is constructed of wood topped with a roof of galvanized iron instead of tile (reflecting the late-19th century trend started in Manila owing to a rule discouraging the use of tiles in favor of then-novel hiero as roofing material in the aftermath of the 1880 Luzon earthquakes).

The house has a four-metre high ceiling and large windows with ventanillas , smaller windows beneath the large windows with sliding panels that can be opened to admit the wind. The lower storey itself is elevated from ground level by a metre-high crawlspace, allowing the wooden foundations to be aired, preventing dampness from rotting the wood.

Related Research Articles

Negros Occidental, officially the Province of Negros Occidental, is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island Region. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically situated and grouped under by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but remains politically independent from the provincial government and also one of the two regional centers in Negros Island Region. It occupies the northwestern half of the large island of Negros, and borders Negros Oriental, which comprises the southeastern half. Known as the "Sugarbowl of the Philippines", Negros Occidental produces more than half the nation's sugar output.

Silay, officially the City of Silay, is a 3rd class component city in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 130,478 people.

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The Negros Revolution, commemorated and popularly known as the Fifth of November or Negros Day, was a political movement that in 1898 created a government on Negros Island in the Philippines, ending Spanish control of the island and paving the way for a republican government run by the Negrense natives. The newly established Negros Republic lasted for approximately three months. American forces landed on the island unopposed on February 2, 1899, ending the island's independence. Negros was then annexed to the Philippine Islands on 20 April 1901.

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Dr. Jose Corteza Locsin Ancestral House is a two-storey house built in the 1930s in Silay, Negros Occidental Philippines. It has been named as a Heritage Houses of the Philippines by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. It was the home of Jose Locsin (1891–1977), a Filipino medical doctor and senator.

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References

1 2 "Negros Cultural Foundation:History". Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
↑ "Balay Negrense". Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
↑ http://balaynegrense.com/Gaston%20Family.html
↑ https://visayandailystar.com/capitol-to-restore-develop-balay-negrense/?amp

External links

Media related to Balay Negrense at Wikimedia Commons

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[ncfh-1] 1 2 "Negros Cultural Foundation:History". Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.

[ateneo-2] "Balay Negrense". Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2008.

[3] ttp://balaynegrense.com/Gaston%20Family.html

[4] ttps://visayandailystar.com/capitol-to-restore-develop-balay-negrense/?amp

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