Casa Fernando Luis Toro facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Fernando Luis Toro Casa
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The house in 2017
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 Location in Puerto Rico
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| Location | La Alhambra Calle Obispado, Number 3, Ponce, Puerto Rico |
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| Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
| Built | 1927 |
| Architect | Francisco Porrata Doria |
| NRHP reference No. | 86000421 |
| Added to NRHP | 5 March 1986 |
The Casa Fernando Luis Toro (which means Fernando Luis Toro Home in English) is a really old and important house in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It's special because it's in La Alhambra, which was the very first planned neighborhood for wealthy families in Puerto Rico.
In 1990, La Alhambra became part of Ponce's historic district. The house was built in 1927 and designed by a famous Puerto Rican architect named Francisco Porrata Doria. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1986. This means it's officially recognized as a place important to history. The house is also known as Casa Chavier. Its first owners sold it in the early 1970s to Mr. Jorge Chavier and his wife, Ms. Hilda de Lis.
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History of the House
This beautiful house was built in 1927. It was designed by Francisco Porrata Doria, a very well-known architect from Ponce. The house is located in a part of the city called La Alhambra.
La Alhambra was a fancy area that was developed in the early 1900s. It was the first planned community in Puerto Rico for people with a lot of money. In 1990, this whole area became part of Ponce's official historic district.
What Makes the Architecture Special?
The design of the Casa Fernando Luis Toro is similar to houses you might see in places like Coral Gables and West Palm Beach, Florida. For example, the house sits on a very large piece of land. This land is surrounded by impressive gardens and plants.
This house is one of three homes next to each other that belonged to three wealthy brothers. Their backyards were connected. A fancy concrete wall at the front served as a shared fence for all three properties.
Inside the house, the living room is right in the middle, which is a unique design. Most of the floors are made of wood. However, the terrace and the dining room have beautiful mosaic tiles. The kitchen, service hall, and pantry have colorful local tiles with different patterns.
Why This House is Important
The Toro residence is in a very elegant part of Ponce called La Alhambra. This area was the first big, fancy suburban neighborhood built in Puerto Rico in the early 1900s. Just like in Coral Gables and West Palm Beach in Florida, the houses here were built on unusually large plots of land. This allowed for very detailed and formal gardens.
The house mixes many different architectural styles. This makes it one of the best examples of the work of architect Francisco Porrata Doria. He was well-known in the area. His unique style combined ideas from different types of architecture. These included Victorian, Georgian, Neo-classic, Beaux Arts, Spanish Revival, and Catalan modernism from Catalonia, Spain.
Architect Porrata Doria designed some of the most important buildings in Ponce. Two of his best projects are the Teatro Fox Delicias and the Banco de Ponce, which faces the main town square. The Toro residence also shows important design ideas from the early 20th century in Ponce. These include its "L" shaped balcony, the use of tiles, mosaics, and stained glass. The dining room was also a very important part of the house's layout.
How the House Looks
The Toro residence was built in 1927 for Mr. Fernando Luis Toro. It was made of strong concrete. Francisco Porrata Doria, a famous local designer, created it. This house is one of three properties that belonged to three brothers, and their patios connected.
The house has a "U" shaped floor plan, with an extra part extending towards the East. The living room is in the very center, which is important for how the spaces are arranged. From this main living room, six special doors lead to other hallways. These doors have arched tops with colorful stained glass. Two other doors lead out to the balcony.
On the north side of the living room, there's a very decorated doorway. It has Doric columns and a fancy top part. This doorway leads into an enclosed terrace. The back wall of this terrace is angled in four sections. Where these angles meet, there are double columns. Colored glass lets soft light into this space. There's also a high, shiny ceramic tile wall with detailed patterns. It even has an Arabic message that says, "God is Allah and Muhammad his only prophet."
On the south end of the west side of the house is the formal dining room. The main decorations here are two sets of twin windows with arched stained glass tops. There are also four deep wooden beams on the ceiling with fancy supports. The rest of the west side of the house holds the service areas. These include a pantry, a breakfast room, the kitchen, a service patio, and the maid's quarters (which is now an office). The east side of the house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a drawing room, and an office with its own entrance.
Even though most of the house has wooden floors, the dining room and enclosed terrace have amazing mosaic floors. The kitchen, service corridor, and pantry have colorful cement tiles with different designs.
The outside of the house is simple but very elegant. You can see flower designs carved into the concrete on the dining room's outer wall and along the main roofline. Red, curved clay tiles cover the "L" shaped balcony, adding color to the white walls. Ten sets of double columns support the balcony roof. These columns are part of the balcony railing. Decorative moldings shaped like geometric patterns surround all the outside doors and windows. They also help protect from the weather.
To the east of the main house, there is a formal garden with a fountain in the middle. Four large, classic urns are placed diagonally from the fountain, making nice focal points. Paved walkways with patterns connect the different parts of the garden. Other buildings on the property include a coach house (which was a garage, but is now an apartment), a cistern tower (for water storage), and a storage shed.
