Casa Oppenheimer

Historic house in Ponce, Puerto Rico

United States historic place

Casa Oppenheimer

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Casa Oppenheimer in 2014

Location of Ponce and the Casa Oppenheimer in Puerto Rico

Location| Calle Salud No. 47 (NW corner with Calle Aurora), Ponce, Puerto Rico
Coordinates| 18°00′34″N 66°36′43″W﻿ / ﻿18.009418°N 66.611890°W﻿ / 18.009418; -66.611890
Area| < 1 acre
Built| 1913
Architect| Alfredo B. Wiechers Pieretti
Architectural style| Art Nouveau
NRHP reference No.| 87001824[1]
Added to NRHP| 29 October 1987

Casa Oppenheimer (English: Oppenheimer House) is a historic house in Ponce, Puerto Rico, designed in 1913 by famed Puerto Rican architect Alfredo B. Wiechers. The house is unique among other historic structures in historic Ponce for its skillful incorporation of front gardens in a very limited urban space.[2] The historic building is located at 47 Salud Street, in the city's historic district, at the northwest corner of Salud and Aurora streets. The house is also known as Casa del Abogado (House of the Attorney).[3] In April 2019, the house was turned into Casa Mujer by MedCentro, a women's health business concern.[4]

## History

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The Oppenheimer House is one of Ponce's most distinctive residential structures. It was designed in 1913 for Doña Isabel Oppenheimer-de Santiago[a] by one of Puerto Rico's foremost early 20th century architects, Alfredo Weichers. Two years earlier, in 1911, he had built Casa Serralles, which today is home to the Museum of Puerto Rican Music.[5] Mr. Weichers left Puerto Rico to study architecture in Barcelona, Spain, and returned to Ponce where he built various structures in the Spanish-Art Nouveau style. Weichers designed many of the mansions of Ponce's aristocratic society of his time. The Oppenheimer residence is one such structure. Architecturally, the house is the result of an artful combination of elements from the contemporary modernist movement and the simpler townspeople's building traditions used in the hot southern coast of Puerto Rico.[6]

Prominent in this property is the used of a chamfered front entrance gate. This front entrance into the property follows the chamfered pattern delineated by the city street at the corner of Salud and Aurora streets. This designed responded to city ordinances which mandated the incorporation of chamfered corners in urban city lots.[7] This design, along with the use of a mirror-image chamfered design of the front of the house proper, provided the property with a significant amount of frontal garden space, uncommon in city lots just two blocks from Ponce's main Plaza, as is the case of this house.[8]

## Significance

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The residence is "one of the best examples in Ponce of the Puerto Rican adaptation of the architecture of the Barcelona School, and forms an integral part of the series of late 19th and early 20th century grand houses which defines the unique urban character of the center of Ponce."[7]

## Architecture

[edit]

Casa Oppenheimer in 2010

The house is a raised, one-storey, brick and masonry residential structure on the northwest corner of Salud and Aurora streets, in Ponce's Historic Zone. It is oriented on a diagonal axis with respect to the street corner. The main facade of the house face the street corner. At both ends of this frontal facade, the house plan turns an angle so that the front facade becomes first perpendicular and then parallel to the corresponding side street. The property is surrounded by a 4-foot plastered masonry wall with an 18-inch high wrought iron railing above. The small, diagonal front chamfered gate is also built in wrought-iron.[2] The frontal facade consists of a concave shape and incorporates a podium porch, Ionic columns, a recessed loggia, and a cornice with a battlement parapet above. The raised loggia porch incorporates concrete balustrades the full length of the balcony. The loggia porch is reached from the front gardens via a wide masonry stairway. The loggia incorporates five bays that establish the central section of the frontal concave facade. The front is highlighted by five arched windows.[9]

## See also

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* Puerto Rico portal

* Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office Files
* Ponce Historic Archives

## Notes

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1. ^ Historian Socorro Giron states that, in 1899, there was also in Ponce an "Isabel Oppenheimer de Subira" (Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de la Almudaina. 1992. Page 398.)

## References

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1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 9 July 2010.
2. ^ a b Mariano G. Coronas Castro, Certifying Official; Hector M. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 14 August 1987. Oppenheimer House. In, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 87001824. 29 October 1987.
3. ^ Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, Rafael J. Torres Torres, and Carlos Aneiro Perez. "Otros Puntos de Interes", in Brevario Sobre la Historia de Ponce y Sus Principales Lugares de Interes. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico). Model Offset Printing. 1991. page 172.
4. ^ MedCentro y la Primera Dama adelantan Proyecto Casa Mujer. La Perla del Sur. Year 36. Issue 1844, 3 to 9 April 2019. p. 19.
5. ^ Museum of Ponce Architecture: Casa Wiechers Villaronga. Travel Ponce.
6. ^ Auxiliar descriptivo de la Colección Alfredo Wiechers. Archived 17 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla Library. (A Horizon Information Portal.) Undated. Accessed 9 November 2018.
7. ^ a b Mariano G. Coronas Castro, Certifying Official; Hector M. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 14 July 1987. Oppenheimer House. In, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 87001824. 29 October 1987.
8. ^ Mariano G. Coronas Castro, Certifying Official; Hector M. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 14 August 1987. Oppenheimer House. In, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Washington, D.C. Section 8: "Significance." Page 3. Listing Reference Number 87001824. 29 October 1987.
9. ^ Mariano G. Coronas Castro, Certifying Official; Hector M. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 14 August 1987. Oppenheimer House. In, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 2. Listing Reference Number 87001824. 29 October 1987.

## External links

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* National Register of Historic Places photographic file
* Plastica, Revista de la Liga de Arte de San Juan, No. 15, Vol. 2. Sept. 1986.
* Archivo Historico de Ponce, Plans of houses designed by Alfredo Weichers.
* Gran Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico, Arquitectura.

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Theaters|

* Teatro La Perla
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Parks|

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* Cerro de Punta
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Landmarks and historic buildings of the Ponce Historic Zone

Plaza Las Delicias
and immediate vicinity|

* Plaza Las Delicias
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* Plaza Muñoz Rivera
* Monumento a los héroes de El Polvorín
* Hotel Meliá
* Casa Saurí
* Los Chinos de Ponce

Government buildings|

* Casa Alcaldía
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Schools and colleges|

* Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico Escuela de Arquitectura
* Instituto de Música Juan Morel Campos
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Religious buildings|

* Catedral Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
* Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad
* Primera Iglesia Metodista Unida de Ponce

Museums|

* Museo Parque de Bombas
* Museo Francisco "Pancho" Coimbre
* Museo de la Historia de Ponce
* Museo de Arte de Ponce
* Museo de la Arquitectura Ponceña
* Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña
* Museo de la Masacre de Ponce
* Casa Paoli
* Residencia Armstrong-Poventud
* Fundación Biblioteca Rafael Hernández Colón

Monuments and memorials|

* Monumento a los héroes de El Polvorín
* Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud
* Estatua Juan Morel Campos
* Estatua Domingo Cruz ("Cocolía")
* Estatua Luis Muñoz Rivera
* Ponce Honra A Su Maestra: Lolita Tizol
* Monumento a la Mujer

Theaters|

* Teatro La Perla
* Teatro Fox Delicias
* Concha Acústica de Ponce

Parks|

* Parque Urbano Dora Colón Clavell
* Parque de la Abolición
* Parque del Tricentenario
* Parque Ecológico Urbano
* Parque Lineal Veredas del Labrador

Markets|

* Paseo Atocha
* Plaza del Mercado de Ponce
* Mercado de las Carnes

Historic banks|

* Edificio Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño
* Edificio Banco de Ponce
* Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño (institution)
* Banco de Ponce (institution)

Historic houses|

* Casa Fernando Luis Toro
* Casa Oppenheimer
* Residencia Subirá
* Casa Rosaly–Batiz
* Casa Vives
* Residencia Ermelindo Salazar
* Centro Español de Ponce
* Casa Salazar-Candal
* Casa Wiechers-Villaronga

Others|

* Albergue Caritativo Tricoche
* Antiguo Cuartel Militar Español de Ponce
* Antiguo Hospital Militar Español de Ponce
* Panteón Nacional Román Baldorioty de Castro
* Ponce YMCA
* Calle 25 de Enero
* Campo Atlético Charles H. Terry

* v
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National Register of Historic Places in Ponce, Puerto Rico

District|

* Hacienda Buena Vista

Building|

* Albergue Caritativo Tricoche
* Antiguo Cuartel Militar Español de Ponce
* Antiguo Hospital Militar Español de Ponce
* Armstrong-Toro House
* Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño
* Banco de Ponce
* Casa Alcaldía de Ponce – City Hall
* Casa de la Masacre
* Casa Miguel C. Godreau
* Casa Paoli
* Casa Vives
* Casino de Ponce
* Castillo de Serralles
* Cathedral Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe of Ponce
* Edificio Empresas Ferré
* Edificio Municipal de la Playa de Ponce
* Fernando Luis Toro Casa
* Font–Ubides House
* Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad
* McCabe Memorial Church
* Mercado de las Carnes
* Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church
* Oppenheimer House
* Parque de Bombas de Ponce
* Ponce High School
* Ponce YMCA Building
* Rosaly–Batiz House
* Salazar–Candal House
* Subirá House
* Teatro La Perla
* U.S. Custom House
* Villaronga House
* Zaldo de Nebot Residencia

Sites|

* Cementerio Antiguo de Ponce
* Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul
* Centro Ceremonial Indígena

Structures|

* Acueducto Alfonso XII
* Carretera Num. 6
* Faro de la Isla de Caja de Muertos
* Faro del Puerto de Ponce
* Puente Río Portugués

See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Ponce, Puerto Rico and List of National Historic Landmarks in Puerto Rico
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