This article lists the oldest extant buildings in Puerto Rico, including extant buildings and structures constructed prior to and during the United States rule over Puerto Rico since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. Only buildings built prior to 1750 are suitable for inclusion on this list, or the building must be the oldest of its type.
In order to qualify for the list, a structure must:
This consciously excludes ruins of limited height, roads and statues. Bridges may be included if they otherwise fulfill the above criteria. Dates for many of the oldest structures have been arrived at by radiocarbon dating or dendrochronology and should be considered approximate. If the exact year of initial construction is estimated, it will be shown as a range of dates.
Building | Image | Location | First built | Use | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
La Casa Blanca | Old San Juan | 1521 | Military, residence | Located in the Old San Juan National Historic Landmark District. [1] Built as a fortified residence for Juan Ponce de León. The house has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
San José Church | Old San Juan | 1532 | Religious | Located in the Old San Juan National Historic Landmark District. [1] Oldest church building and oldest monastery in Puerto Rico. Additions and renovations over the centuries. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
La Fortaleza | Old San Juan | 1533 | Government, military | Located in the Old San Juan National Historic Landmark District [1] and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2] Oldest executive mansion in the New World. Extensive reconstructions took place over the centuries. | |
Castillo San Felipe del Morro | Old San Juan | 1539 | Military | Part of the San Juan National Historic Site [3] and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2] Built to defend the eastern entrance to the San Juan Bay and the Islet of San Juan. Construction started in 1539, with extensive additions over the centuries. | |
Cathedral of San Juan Bautista | Old San Juan | 1540 | Religious | Located in the Old San Juan National Historic Landmark District. [1] Oldest church building in the U.S. and its territories, original built in 1521 on modern-day location (extensive additions and renovations). The cathedral has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Basilica of the Virgin of Monserrat | Hormigueros | c. 1570 | Religious | Radiocarbon dating on the building foundations and the inner chapel dates to ca. 1570. The current church building was built during the second half of the 18th century. | |
San Juan City Hall | Old San Juan | 1604-1789 | Government | Oldest building used as a city hall in Puerto Rico, first built as the Cabildo de Puerto Rico . The main structure was built in stages between 1604 and 1789. The façade dates to 1840. [4] | |
Porta Coeli | San Germán | 1609 | Religious | The church has been on US territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. Located in San Germán Historic District. [5] | |
Fortín San Juan de la Cruz | Toa Baja | 1610-1660 | Military | Part of the San Juan National Historic Site [3] and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2] Built between 1610 and 1660 at the site of a former small wooden fortification which defended the western entrance to the San Juan Bay and the original mouth of the Bayamón River. [3] | |
Monasterio del Señor San José de la Orden de Nuestra Señora del Carmen | Old San Juan | 1646-1651 | Religious | Former nunnery and monastery founded in 1651, today a hotel known as Hotel El Convento. The current exterior dates to the second half of the 19th century. | |
Iglesia San Blas de Illescas | Coamo | 1661 | Religious | Considered one of the most important works of religious architecture in Puerto Rico. [6] The church has been on US territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Hermitage Church of Nuestra Señora de Valvanera of Coamo | Coamo | 1685 | Religious | Brick masonry chapel from 1685. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. [7] | |
Iglesia San Germán de Auxerre | San Germán | 1688 | Religious | This parish church was built in 1688. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Church Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria y San Matías of Manatí | Manatí | 1729 | Religious | Originally in 1729 and underwent major repairs in 1864. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Parroquia del Espiritu Santo y San Patricio | Loíza | 1729 | Religious | This parish church was built in 1729. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes de San Miguel de Hato Grande | San Lorenzo | 1737 | Religious | Also known as Las Mercedes Church, this Classical Revival style building was built in 1737. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Alejandro Tapia y Rivera Theater | Old San Juan | 1824 | Theater | Oldest free-standing theater in San Juan and one of the oldest theaters in the Caribbean. [8] | |
La Princesa Prison | Old San Juan | 1837 | Prison | Oldest purpose-built prison in Puerto Rico. [9] | |
Ponce City Hall | Ponce | 1840 | Government | Oldest purpose-built city hall in Puerto Rico and oldest surviving building Ponce. [10] | |
United States Customs House in Ponce | Ponce | 1842 | Government | Oldest U.S. customs house in Puerto Rico and the only one of its type under the U.S. flag. Possibly also the oldest purpose-built post office in Puerto Rico. [11] | |
Casa de los Ponce de León | San Germán | 1842 | Residence | Allegedly the oldest continuously occupied home in Puerto Rico; home to Ponce De Leon family. Located in San Germán Historic District. [5] The house has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898. | |
Port San Juan Light | Old San Juan | 1846 | Lighthouse | Oldest lighthouse structure in Puerto Rico. [12] Built onto El Morro, which is part the San Juan National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [2] | |
Central San Vicente | Vega Baja | 1873 | Refinery | First sugarcane refinery to be built in Puerto Rico. Although most of the building is in ruins, its chimney and central brick structure and steam engines still remain. [13] | |
Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad | Ponce | 1873 | Religious | Oldest non-Roman Catholic religious building and oldest Anglican and Protestant church building in Puerto Rico. Holy Trinity was still the only Protestant church in Puerto Rico at the time of the United States invasion in 1898. The current structure dates to 1926 and it preserves some of its former features such as its 1870 bell cast. [14] | |
Cape San Juan Light | Fajardo | 1880 | Lighthouse | Oldest free-standing lighthouse building in Puerto Rico. [15] It played a major role in the Battle of Fajardo during the Puerto Rican Campaign of the Spanish–American War in 1898. | |
Logia Masónica Hijos de la Luz | Yauco | 1894 | Meeting hall | Possibly the oldest built and certainly the oldest surviving purpose-built Masonic building in Puerto Rico. [16] | |
Yagüez Theater | Mayagüez | 1909 | Theater | Oldest surviving purpose-built movie theater in Puerto Rico. | |
Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and United States Courthouse | Old San Juan | 1914 | Government | Oldest U.S.-built post office, courthouse and federal building in Puerto Rico. [17] | |
Ponce High School | Ponce | 1915 | Education | Oldest purpose-built public school and high school building in Puerto Rico. [18] | |
Condado Vanderbilt Hotel | Santurce | 1919 | Hotel | First purpose-built luxury hotel and hotel casino in Puerto Rico. [19] [20] | |
Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico | Río Piedras | 1951 | Museum | Oldest purpose-built museum building in Puerto Rico. [21] [22] | |
San Juan is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 342,259. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico.
Ponce is a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on August 12, 1692 and is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce is often referred to as La Perla del Sur, La Ciudad Señorial, and La Ciudad de las Quenepas.
Coamo is a town and municipality founded in 1579 in the south-central region of Puerto Rico, located north of Santa Isabel; south of Orocovis and Barranquitas; east of Villalba and Juana Díaz; and west of Aibonito and Salinas. The municipality of Coamo is spread over 10 barrios and Coamo Pueblo – the town or downtown area and administrative center of the city. The Coamo municipality is also a Micropolitan Statistical Area and as such is part of the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area.
La Fortaleza, also known as Palacio de Santa Catalina, is the official residence and workplace of the governor of Puerto Rico. Located in the historical district of Old San Juan in the capital city of San Juan, it has served as the residence of the governor since the 16th century, making it the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the New World. Built between 1533 and 1540 by orders of Charles I of Spain, the structure was the first fortification constructed by the Spanish on San Juan Islet to defend San Juan Bay, the harbor of Old San Juan. La fortaleza, alongside El Morro, San Cristóbal, El Cañuelo, and other forts part of the Walls of Old San Juan, protected strategically and militarily important Puerto Rico, or La Llave de las Indias , from invasion by competing world powers and harassment by privateers and pirates during the Age of Sail. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983 as part of La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site.
San Juan National Historic Site in the Old San Juan section of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a National Park Service-managed historic site which preserves and interprets the Spanish colonial-era fortification system of the city of San Juan, and features structures such as the San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal fortresses. This fortification system is the oldest European construction under United States jurisdiction and one of the oldest in the New World. This national historic site, together with La Fortaleza, have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
San Juan Islet is a 3-square-mile (7.8 km2) islet or small island on San Juan Bay in the Atlantic coast of northern Puerto Rico. Home to Old San Juan, it is the site of the oldest permanent European settlement in Puerto Rico (1521), and the second oldest European settlement in the West Indies after Santo Domingo (1496). Due to its strategic location in the Caribbean during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, it is home to a city wall and a number of militaristic buildings such as El Morro Castle. Today, it is also home to many of Puerto Rico's government buildings such as the territory's capitol building.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico is a private Roman Catholic university with its main campus in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It provides courses leading to Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees in education, business administration, the sciences, and arts and humanities. It also has campuses in Arecibo and Mayagüez, as well as a satellite extension in Coamo. It is also home to a School of Law and a School of Architecture. The university also founded a medical school, Escuela de Medicina de Ponce, in 1977, but in 1980 became an independent entity that eventually became the Ponce Health Sciences University.
The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico is a private, nonprofit organization protecting natural areas; constituting conservation easements; restoring, rehabilitating and preserving historical structures; developing educational programs that foster the protection of natural areas; and directing a tree nursery program for native and endemic species, among others. The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico has been accredited by The Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The Conservation Trust is also a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a global environmental organization with more than 1,200 public and private members from 160 countries.
The Carretera Central is a historic north–south central highway in Puerto Rico, linking the cities of San Juan and Ponce by way of Río Piedras, Caguas, Cayey, Aibonito, Coamo, and Juana Díaz. It crosses the Cordillera Central. Plans for the road started in the first half of the 19th century, and the road was fully completed in 1898. At the time the United States took possession of Puerto Rico in 1898, the Americans called it "the finest road in the Western Hemisphere."
Timoteo Luberza de San Martín was a nineteenth-century Puerto Rican engineer from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was responsible for the 1875 Ponce water supply system, including the dam in Rio Portugues, and the Calle del Agua masonry arch aqueduct in barrio Portugues Urbano in Ponce. In 1864, he served briefly as mayor of the nearby town of Yauco. He is best remembered for designing Plaza del Mercado de Ponce.
Residencia Ermelindo Salazar is a historic house in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was built in 1870 as the home of Ermelindo Salazar, a prominent citizen and businessman in the city as well as its mayor in 1880. It is located at 70 Cristina street in the Ponce Historic Zone, in Barrio Tercero, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Today the house serves as the headquarters of the Centro Cultural de Ponce Carmen Solá de Pereira, the cultural center of the city of Ponce, where it is used for educational and cultural activities as well as for art exhibits.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico.
San Juan Bay is the bay and main inlet adjacent to Old San Juan in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) in length, the largest body of water in an estuary of about 97 square miles (250 km2) of channels, inlets and eight interconnected lagoons. The San Juan Bay is home to the island's busiest harbor and its history dates back to at least 1508.
La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Caribbean. The world heritage site consists of several historic defensive structures built by the Spanish Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries to defend the strategically located colonial city of San Juan and its bay from foreign attacks. These fortifications are among the oldest European-built defensive systems and largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to its historic importance the site is notable for its architectural significance as one of the most prominent military adaptations of Renaissance and Baroque architecture in the Americas.
Suzi Ferrer (born Susan Nudelman, also known as Sasha Ferrer, was a visual artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico from the mid-1960s to 1975. She is known for her transgressive, irreverent, avant-garde, art brut and feminist work.
The Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico — often shortened to Museum of the UPR or MAHA — is a university museum dedicated to anthropology, archaeology and the history of art of Puerto Rico located on the grounds of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Officially dating to 1951, this museum is the oldest in Puerto Rico with its first collection being even older dating to 1914, donated by then Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau.
The Walls of Old San Juan is a defensive city wall that surrounds the western end of the San Juan Islet, site of the historic district of San Juan, Puerto Rico. This defensive wall system was built between the 16th and 18th centuries to protect the city and the Bay of San Juan, a highly strategic point in the Caribbean. These walls, along with the defensive fortresses in Old San Juan, form part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site-designated San Juan National Historic Site as they are characteristic examples of the historic methods of construction used in military architecture which adapted European designs and techniques to the special conditions of the Caribbean port cities.
The Miami Building, also known as the Miami Apartments or the 868 Ashford Building, is a historic Art Deco building located in the Avenida Ashford of the Condado section of Santurce in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and to the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones in 1995.
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