Hacienda Buena Vista facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Hacienda Buena Vista
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The Manor House at Hacienda Buena Vista
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| Location | Barrio Magueyes, PR-123, Km 16.8 |
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| Nearest city | Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Area | 482 cuerdas (approx. 468 acres) |
| Built | 1833 |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial and Ponce Creole |
| NRHP reference No. | 91001499 |
| Added to NRHP | 17 October 1994 |
Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives, was a large farm in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It started in the 1800s, focusing on growing coffee and other crops. Don Salvador de Vives began this farm in 1833.
The Hacienda is located on about 82 acres of rich land, surrounded by a humid forest. It's about 7 miles north of Ponce, along Route PR-123. The main house was built in the Spanish Colonial style, and other buildings used a local style called Criollo. The original farm was much larger, covering about 468 acres.
Today, the Hacienda is owned by the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust. They turned it into a museum in 1986, where visitors can learn about its history.
Contents
Why This Historic Farm is Special
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Hacienda Buena Vista is important for a few key reasons.
- Unique Machine: It has the only remaining example of a Barker hydraulic turbine. This was a very early type of water-powered machine. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized it as a landmark in 1994.
- Coffee History: The Hacienda is one of the best examples of a Puerto Rican coffee farm from the past. In the late 1800s, Puerto Rican coffee was famous worldwide for its high quality. Some even say it was a favorite at the Vatican! The Hacienda shows how the coffee industry grew and changed over time.
- Farm Evolution: You can see how the farm's products changed. It started by growing crops like plantains (from 1833 to 1845). Then, it produced flour from rice and corn (from 1847 to 1872). These foods were very important for the people living nearby.
A Look Back in Time
Hacienda Buena Vista began as a farm mainly for growing plantains, bananas, corn, and avocados. Don Salvador de Vives, who came from Catalonia in Spain, started it in 1833. He sold his crops in the Ponce market and to nearby sugarcane farms. The Vives estate was originally about 500 acres.
In 1845, Salvador's son added a corn mill to the farm. Later, Salvador's grandson started growing and processing coffee. This was during the big coffee boom of the 1880s and 1890s. Salvador's son and grandson brought in some of the most advanced farm machines on the island. These machines were powered by a waterfall about 100 feet tall nearby. Hacienda Buena Vista became one of the most successful farms in Puerto Rico's mountains.
However, a series of hurricanes and a drop in coffee prices caused the farm to slow down by 1900. Hacienda Buena Vista slowly fell apart and was partly left empty.
By 1937, farming in Puerto Rico had declined a lot. The plantation was mostly abandoned, becoming just a weekend house for the Vives family. The buildings and equipment quickly wore out in the humid tropical weather.
In 1984, the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust bought 86 acres of the original land. They wanted to restore it. Even though the coffee processing machines and farm buildings were in bad shape, the Trust managed to fix up the estate. Now, it teaches people about the great era of coffee growing in Puerto Rico's mountains. The original owners gave many of their old furnishings, and the Trust bought other real pieces from that time.
Today, Hacienda Buena Vista is a popular place for learning. The old machines are working again, farm animals are on the grounds, and the farmhouse rooms are furnished. You can even smell fresh roasted coffee! Visitors can take tours through the Vives family home and explore the farm buildings. You can see real 19th-century farm machines that show how a coffee farm worked in the 1880s.
Salvador Vives: The Founder
Salvador Vives came to Puerto Rico from Venezuela in 1821. He was a 12-year Spanish officer from Catalonia, Spain. He had to leave Venezuela after the Spanish Army lost a battle in 1821. Vives arrived in Puerto Rico on June 27, 1821, with his wife and son. He also brought two workers with him. He settled in the southern city of Ponce, where the sugar industry was growing fast.
Early Years in Puerto Rico
Salvador Vives didn't have money to buy sugar-growing land. So, he worked for the Ponce government in the 1820s and 1830s. He helped other Spanish people who had moved and also worked as a public notary. By 1838, he had enough money to buy about 482 acres of hilly, undeveloped forest land. This land was in the Magueyes area, north of Ponce, near the Canas River.
The land was mostly mountains with thick forests, far from the town. Luckily, Vives could buy it cheaply. At that time, the most wanted lands were the flat areas near the coast, perfect for growing sugar. A new road, PR-123, was being built in the area. This road would make it easy to bring products from Vives's future farm to the market in Ponce. The building of the PR-123 road was a big reason for the Hacienda's success.
The Vives Farm
Growing Fruits and Vegetables
Hacienda Buena Vista grew plantains, beans, yams, and corn. These crops were sold at the Plaza del Mercado Isabel II in Ponce. Sugar farm owners in the area bought them to feed the workers on their farms. The Hacienda also grew other crops like cotton, coffee, and rice. It also raised cattle, oxen, mules, and horses in the lower fields near the farm buildings. At first, the main crop was plantains. By 1845, about 40 acres were used for this crop. Between 1852 and 1860, plantain production grew from 329,200 to 475,380.
First Mills are Added
In 1837, Vives bought machines to process his crops. These included a corn mill, a coffee depulper (to remove the outer layer), a cotton gin, and a rice husking machine. All these machines were powered by animals. In the 1840s, the farm's business grew to include producing food and distributing corn flour across Puerto Rico's central coast. Buying and installing the corn mill was a great investment for Vives. His earnings increased, and he became important enough to be elected mayor of Ponce from 1841 to 1845. He served three terms as mayor. As mayor, Vives moved the District Court Center to Ponce. He also had the City Hall built and arranged for the city's official coat of arms with the Spanish crown.
Water-Powered Corn Mill
After Salvador Vives passed away in 1845, his son Carlos took over the farm. Carlos saw that making corn meal to feed workers on sugar farms was important. He decided to build a water-powered corn mill to replace the animal-powered one his father had built. This new mill was built between 1845 and 1847. It had a large wooden water wheel, 16 feet across, that turned the grinding stones. Carlos powered this mill with water from the Canas River waterfall. The water traveled through a 2600-foot-long canal, which was started in 1847 and finished in 1851. Inside the corn mill building, Carlos also built a room to toast corn before it was ground. Carlos finished many of the farm's buildings that you see today. These included the living quarters for the workers, the manor house, the warehouse, and the carriage house with stables for horses and mules.
The Turbine-Driven Corn Mill
Carlos Vives also added the famous Barker engine. In 1847, as the need for milled corn grew, Carlos built another building for a new corn mill. This one was powered by a hydraulic turbine from the West Point Foundry in New York. The turbine was patented in the United States in 1843 by James Whitelaw from Scotland. The flour from Hacienda Buena Vista became famous across the island for its excellent quality. From 1847 to 1873, the farm's corn flour was the best among local mills. Soon after, a machine to grind the corn into powder was added. The Hacienda's white and yellow corn flour won a gold medal for excellence in an exhibition in San Juan in June 1855. In 1860, the Hacienda won awards again at the Puerto Rico Exposition Fair.
Coffee's Rise and Fall
Carlos Vives died in 1872. Around this time, sales of corn meal, a main product, started to drop. Instead, there was a growing demand for Puerto Rican coffee around the world. Carlos's oldest son, also named Salvador Vives, saw a future in coffee. In 1892, he installed coffee depulping and bean husking machines in the old corn mill. He ran them using the original water wheel. Making both corn meal and coffee helped the farm stay successful.
Some of the best Puerto Rican coffee came from the central mountains, near towns like Yauco, Ponce, Lares, and Utuado. The Vives family's farm was perfect for growing coffee. By the late 1800s, Hacienda Buena Vista produced over 5 tons of coffee a year, just for export to Europe.
However, the good times for coffee at Hacienda Buena Vista ended in the early 1900s. Three big problems happened one after another, and coffee production in all of Puerto Rico dropped sharply.
- In 1899, Hurricane San Ciriaco hit Puerto Rico hard. After this hurricane, Puerto Rico never became a major coffee exporter again.
- To make things worse, in 1900, the worldwide price of coffee fell very low. This made it much harder to compete.
- The third problem came in 1901. Puerto Rico became part of the United States Customs System. This made local coffee less competitive in European markets and also removed Puerto Rico's special status in US markets.
To adapt, Salvador Vives started a successful program of growing oranges for the New York City market. This new type of farming continued until 1956.
What the Hacienda Looks Like Today
Hacienda Buena Vista is in the Magueyes area of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It sits between 160 and 460 meters above sea level. The hills near the farm buildings are great for growing corn, coffee, and fruits. The nearby Canas River provides the water power needed to run the farm's mills.
Today, the Hacienda is an 87-acre farm complex. Its main buildings are grouped together in a 3-acre central area. The property has 11 original buildings:
- The Hacienda manor house (main family home)
- The carriage house
- The horse stables
- The mule stables
- The caretaker's house and office
- Two warehouses
- A hurricane shelter
- The corn mill
- The worker housing
There is also a water canal system that still works, an aqueduct, and a house garden. The building where coffee beans were processed was rebuilt to look like the original one from 1892.
Manor House and Other Buildings
The manor house is a two-story building, about 60 by 50 feet. It was built in 1845. The first floor was used for storage. The second floor has three bedrooms and a living room. The eastern part of the house is made of brick and includes a courtyard, kitchen, two more bedrooms, and a bathroom. The manor house also has a garden with a wrought iron and brick fence. This garden was the formal entrance to the farm, but it was also a private family space. Since horses were important for managing the farm, there was also a carriage house, stables, and a small caretaker's house. Mule stables and a caretaker's office were also built. Across from the manor house is the hurricane shelter. It's a strong brick building, about 15 by 25 feet, built 3 feet above the ground. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were made to withstand strong tropical storms.
Canal and Aqueduct
A very important part of the farm was the brick canal. It is 18 inches deep and 12 inches wide and runs for about 2600 feet. A 360-meter drop in water height provides the energy to run the mills. Vives paid 360 Spanish pesos for the 58 acres of the Canas River area to get water for his canal. The Spanish Colonial Government in Puerto Rico allowed him to use the river for the farm. The canal and aqueduct were finished in 1851. A system of gates is used to send water where it's needed:
- One gate sends water to the water wheel and the corn mill's water turbine.
- Another gate sends water to the fermentation tank, a decorative washbasin, and the bath.
- A third gate sends water back to the Canas River.
Coffee Processing Mill
The coffee de-pulping and husking mill is a two-story wooden building. It's located northwest of the main house. It first held the 1845 corn mill. But in 1892, as Hacienda Buena Vista started processing more coffee beans, the building was changed to become the coffee husking mill.
Corn Mill
A second corn mill at Hacienda Buena Vista was built in 1854. It's a two-story wooden building, about 16 feet wide and 25 feet 4 inches long. The actual corn grinding happened on the floor of this mill. Dried corn went through a hopper (a funnel-shaped container) in this building and was processed here. It was ground into corn meal and then packed into bags. One of the aqueduct canals ran underneath this building to power the corn mill above. A bean drying station was also built for coffee production. This building dates from 1847. It had previously been used as worker housing. After the end of slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873, it was turned into a bean drying building. The pans used for drying the coffee beans were also kept here.
The Historic Turbine
The hydraulic turbine for the corn mill was ordered in August 1853 by a Mr. Bennet, acting for Don Carlos Vives. It came from the West Point Foundry in New York. The turbine followed a design patented by James Whitelaw and James Stirrat of Paisley, Scotland, in 1841.
Amazing Technology at the Farm
Hacienda Buena Vista was special because it used advanced machinery compared to other farms in the area.
The Scotch-type turbine in the corn mill is a unique piece of water-powered technology. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized it as very important. This "Buena Vista Turbine" is a rare example of early hydraulic machines. It's considered a "missing link" in the history of how water-powered machines developed.
Lasting Impact
On July 16, 1994, Robert B. Gaither from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers gave a special award to the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust. The Hacienda Buena Vista's hydraulic turbine was named a National Historic Monument of Mechanical Engineering. This award recognized not only the turbine's importance but also the amazing work the Conservation Trust did to restore it.
Today's Use
In 1956, the government of Puerto Rico took over most of Buena Vista's land. This was due to a new law to give land to local farmers. Only 87 acres remained with the Vives family, including the manor house and the water channel system. The Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico (Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico) bought these 87 acres in 1984. In 1986, the Trust restored the Hacienda to much of its former glory and turned it into a museum. The museum opened in 1987. It is the only farm museum in Puerto Rico. In 1988, the Trust completely rebuilt the coffee mill to look like it did in 1892.
Images for kids
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The Manor House at Hacienda Buena Vista
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Entrance sign at Hacienda Buena Vista on Puerto Rico Highway 123 (PR-123) in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico
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Hacienda Buena Vista, looking south from the corn mill
