Willis Fletcher Johnson

HAVANA is one of the most charming capitals in the New World. Its very name, Indian in its origin, conjures up a vivid panorama of four centuries, crowded with tragedy, pathos, adventure, bold deeds, cruel crimes and noble sacrifices; on whose rapidly moving film the hand of fate has pictured every phase of human emotion from the wild dreams of world conquerors, to the hopeless despair of hunted Cubenos, who preferred death to slavery. It was on the 25th day of July, 1515, that Diego Velasquez, while cruising along the south coast of the Island, stopped on the sandy beach near a native fishing village called Metabano. The Indians belonged to a tribe known as the Habanas; one of the thirty different divisions of the Cubenos. Grass-covered plains extending back from the beach seemed to impress Velasquez favorably, so he founded a city there and called it San Cristobal de la Habana.

Toward the close of the year 1519, however, the colonists evidently disapproved of Velasquez’s selection and moved their town across to the north coast of the Island at the mouth of the Almandares, where northeasterly winds made the summers more agreeable. This little stream, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, had a depth of twelve or fifteen feet at the mouth, sufficient for the caravels of those days. But some of the City Fathers, in their wanderings to the eastward, found the beautiful bay, then known as Carena. A prophetic glimpse into the future may have furnished the motive for another change; at any rate a year later they picked up their household fixtures, carrying with them the town records, and established the City where it now stands, on the eastern shores of one of the finest land locked harbors in the world. In 1556 Havana became the capital of Cuba, the rendezvous of all Spanish fleets in the Occident, as well as the key to the Gulf of Mexico.

Havana in the early days of the 16th century consisted of several groups or clusters of palm thatched huts, not far from the bay, with little that could suggest a city in embryo. As in all cities built by the Spaniards in the New World, the first permanent buildings were churches and monasteries erected for the benefit of the Catholic clergy and built, as a rule, of adobe or mamposteria, with walls two or three feet in thickness. The material used was a mixture of rock, earth and sand, inclosed in facings of plaster. Many of them were decorated with crude figures and images of saints popular in the community.

Later, quarries of soft limestone were found in abundance, and from these, blocks were easily cut which, after exposure to the atmosphere, formed a hard, durable building material. The coral rock of which both Morro and CabaÑas were built was taken from old quarries scattered along the north shore from Morro eastward. From these quarries came also the stone that built the spacious San Francisco Convent, occupied today by the Central post office.

As in all Spanish towns, in the New World at least, a plaza or open square formed the center from which the principal streets radiated. On the eastern side of the plaza of Havana, in front of La Fuerza, was erected in after years El Templete, in honor of the first mass held by the inhabitants of Havana, which took place under a giant ceiba growing close to the shore of the harbor, in 1519.

Nearly all of the permanent structures in Havana, up to the middle of the 17th century, were located on or near the water front, some distance in from La Punta. Many of these, including La Fuerza, the San Francisco convent, the old cathedral and La Maestranza, were built of coral limestone cemented with a mixture the formula for which is said to have been lost, but which in these buildings has endured the wear of centuries. Excellent clay for making tile and brick was later found not far south of the City, so that the more pretentious buildings were covered with roofs of the criolla tiles that are still common throughout all Latin America.

Before the middle of the 15th century, the clearing in which Havana was located was extended out as far as the street now known as Monserrate, running from the Gulf front across to the southwestern extension of the bay. In 1663 a splendid wall was begun along this line and completed with the help of slaves in 1740. It ran almost north and south, inclosing the city on the west, and protected it from all attacks coming from the land side. This wall was twenty feet in height and twelve feet thick at the base, surmounted at frequent intervals by quaint round-topped turrets. It had its angles, bastions and points of vantage for defensive purposes, the work, according to experts, representing a very high degree of engineering ability on the part of those who planned it.

With the exception of one angle and its turret, which stands in front of the new Presidential Palace, the old walls were removed in 1902, thus depriving Havana of perhaps the most picturesque feature of the ancient city.

Just in front of this wall on the west, a wide clearing was made to prevent surprise attacks from the forests beyond. With the felling of the trees, grass soon grew along its entire length, hence the name Prado, which means meadow, became permanently attached to it, and so the green lawn in front of the old walls of the 17th century was transformed two hundred years later into Havana’s most aristocratic avenue.

The principal thoroughfare, leading from the southern side of the Plaza de Armas to the Prado, was called Obispo or Bishop Street, which name it still retains. It is said that the first Bishop of Havana was in the habit of taking his daily walk out along this road to the main gate of the City; hence the name.

Beginning at the water front and running from La Fuerza west, parallel to Obispo, is O’Reilly Street, named in honor of one of Cuba’s most energetic Governors-General, who controlled the affairs of Havana in 1763, and who was, as the name suggests, of Irish antecedents. Just north of O’Reilly and parallel to it we have Empedrado Street which won its distinction by being paved from the old Cathedral to San Juan de Dios Park in the time of Governor General Las Casas. South of Obispo came Obrapia Street, or the Lane of Pious Works. Beyond and parallel to it came Lamparilla Street, which earned this cognomen owing to the fact that some progressive citizen in the early days hung a lantern in front of his residence for the benefit of the public at large.

Next comes Amargua Street, or the Bitter Way. It is along Amargura that certain pious and penitent monks were said to practice flagellation. With shoulders bent, and on their knees, they invited the blows of whips while wending their way out towards the edge of the city. Incidentally they collected alms en route. On the southeast corner of Amargura and Mercaderes Streets a peculiar cross in stucco, painted green, is built into the wall of the house where, centuries ago, lived a high dignitary of the church, before which all passing religious processions paused for special prayers.

There is hardly a square within the old walled city that has not some story or legend whose origin goes back to the days of Velasquez, De Soto, Cortez of Mexico, and other celebrated conquerors of the New World.

The Havana of today is a strange mingling of modern, reinforced cement and stone structures, five or six stories high, with little one or two-story, thick-walled, tile roofed samples of architecture that prevailed three hundred years or more ago. City property, however, is increasing so rapidly in value that many old landmarks along the narrow streets of the wall inclosed section are being torn down and replaced with large, well equipped office buildings.

COLON PARK

Colon Park, one of the most beautiful pleasure grounds of the Cuban capital, is also known as the Campo de Marte, and is at the southern end of the famous Prado. It is noted for its marvellous avenues of royal palms. From it the Call de la Reina, once one of the most fashionable streets of the city but now given up to business, runs westward toward the Botanical Gardens.

COLON PARK Colon Park, one of the most beautiful pleasure grounds of the Cuban capital, is also known as the Campo de Marte, and is at the southern end of the famous Prado. It is noted for its marvellous avenues of royal palms. From it the Call de la Reina, once one of the most fashionable streets of the city but now given up to business, runs westward toward the Botanical Gardens.

With the accumulation of sugar estates, coffee plantations, cattle ranches and resultant wealth, people of means began to seek summer homes beyond the walls of the old City. All men in those days went heavily armed for any danger that might threaten, while numerous slaves furnished protection from common thieves and highwaymen.

With the development of the outlying districts, trails and roads soon began to reach out both to the west and south, followed some years later by what were known as Caminos Reales or Royal Roads, connecting Havana with Matanzas, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Remedios, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba.

One road, known still as El Cerro, ran southwest along the crest of a ridge that led towards the western part of the Island and in after years connected Havana with the big coffee plantations in the mountains and foothills of Pinar del Rio. Along this road were built the first suburban residences and country homes of the aristocracy of Havana.

Many of these places were cut out of dense woods, and on one of them, until less than ten years ago, the original owner, the Conde de Fernandina, retained a full square of dense primeval forest, not a tree of which had been removed since the days of Columbus. This remnant of virgin wilderness, located on the corner of El Cerro and Consejero Arango Streets, was for some six years passed by the electric car line of El Cerro.

All of this section of the City, of course, was long ago built up with handsome residences that sheltered most of the old Cuban families, who had inherited the right to titles, coats of arms, and other paraphernalia pertaining to the monarchy of Spain. Tulipan Park marks the center of this aristocratic district, and still retains much of its old-time atmosphere of colonial prestige.

Further south ran another winding trail that gradually ascended a range of hills, forming the divide from which the undulating surface slopes towards the south coast, thirty miles away, where Velasquez located the original site of Havana. This thoroughfare is known as Jesus del Monte, or Jesus of the Mountain, and has become quite popular in recent years on account of reputed healthfulness due to its elevation above the sea.

When the last remnants of the Spanish army returned to Spain in 1899, that portion of the City called El Vedado, or The Forbidden, extending from the Beneficencia, or Orphan Asylum, out to the Almandares River, three miles distant, was nothing but a goat pasture, with a low sea front of sharp coral rocks. Its soil was thin and the district apparently had nothing to recommend it aside from its view of the ocean.

A little dummy engine pulled a shaky, shabby car out to the Almandares, making four trips a day. Just why it ran at all was a mystery to the inhabitants, since there was but little inducement to travel in that direction. The entire expanse of land from the Santa Clara Battery to the Almandares, and miles beyond, could have been purchased for a song, but no one wanted it.

Two years later some “fool American” erected an attractive bungalow on the line, about half way to the Almandares, and not long after, sign boards could be seen with the notice, “Lots for sale,” which invariably occasioned smiles, since there were no purchasers. But around the bungalow were laid out pretty grounds, and the suggestion took root. Two men of means erected beautiful places close by, and the building of homes in the cactus-covered flats became a fad.

The price of lots, which began at ten cents a square meter, soon rose to a dollar, then two dollars, five, ten, twenty-five, and today this entire section from Havana to the Almandares and beyond, from the dog teeth coral of the coast, up over the crest of the Principe Hill, is covered with beautiful modern mansions with splendid grounds, and forms the residential pride and show ground of the city.

This marvelous increase in development of suburban property, which seems to continue with leaps and bounds, has long since passed the Almandares River and reached out to the Playa and to the Country Club, while even further west land is sold by the square meter and not by the caballeria. All has taken place since Leonard Wood stepped into the Palace as Governor-General of Cuba in the year 1900.

Another well-known highway that played an important part in the early history of Havana was called La Reina. This wide, beautiful avenue begins at the Parque Colon and runs due west until at the crest of the first ridge the name changes to Carlos Tercero, passing between avenues of laurels until it reaches the Quinto de los Molinos and the Botanical Gardens. Passing on around the southern edge of the Principe Plateau, the avenue continues on to Colon Cemetery, a beautiful spot, commanding a view of the mouth of the Almandares, and that portion of Vedado lying between it and the Gulf. Since Havana has but one cemetery for a city of over 360,000 inhabitants, travel to the last resting place is somewhat constant over this really beautiful road.

The view from the western terminus of Principe Hill is one of the finest in Cuba’s capital. It was this crest that the English Colonel Howe, after landing his force of three thousand men in 1762 at the mouth of the Almandares River, ascended and from it saw for the first time the old walled city lying at his feet, in all its primitive glory.

This commanding position on the western edge of the Principe Plateau, with the City of Havana, the Botanical Gardens and the beautiful Quinto de los Molinos lying at its base, was chosen for the site of the University of Havana, and no more appropriate place for an institution of this kind could have been selected. In the near future it will undoubtedly become one of the most important seats of learning in Latin America.

Near the head of the western extension of Havana Harbor is the Loma of Atares, on whose summit rests a picturesque 18th century fortress of the same name. The hill rises abruptly several hundred feet above the level plain, and commands all approaches to the City both from the south and the west.

The prado or meadow, that extended along the western front of Havana’s embattled ramparts, is today changed into a wide esplanade, along which runs a double driveway for automobiles and carriages. Through the center, between double rows of laurels and flamboyans, are shaded walks, shrubs and rare plants of the tropics. On both sides of this fashionable street, sumptuous mansions, many of them homes of millionaires and distinguished men of this western Paris, have been built since the inauguration of the Republic. Attempts have been made at different times to change the name of this avenue, but the people of Havana, up to the present, have insisted on retaining the term first given it, the “Prado,” that always lay between the City gates and the western forests.

On the east lies the former walled city with its narrow streets and antique buildings and picturesque landmarks of bygone centuries. On the west we have the more modern City, that extends for miles both south and west, where beautiful residences have been erected, some of them palatial in size and appointments. Several of the more prominent hotels, too, are located on the Prado where it forms the western boundary of “Parque Central,” that delightful retreat in the City’s center. In front of the Park was the large gate that gave entrance and exit to the traffic of the old time thoroughfares of Obispo and O’Reilly. Many beautiful club buildings, whose cost ran into millions, are located along the Prado.

At the southwestern corner of the Park is the new National Theatre, a magnificent piece of architecture covering an entire block of ground, and costing some $3,000,000. This theatre is the largest and best equipped place of amusement in Havana, and at its entertainments may be found the elite of the Island republic. The season of grand opera continues for approximately six weeks every winter, during which the best artists of Italy, France, Spain and the Metropolitan Opera of New York furnish entertainment to a music-loving audience, whose taste is as refined and critical as any in the world.

The “Parque Central” covers an area equivalent to two city squares, in which many beautiful shade trees, including the evergreen laurel, the flamboyan, date and royal palms, and other plants and flowers peculiar to the tropics, add shade and beauty to the spot. In its center rises an imposing statue in marble of JosÉ Marti.

From this central point the Prado continues south until it terminates in the “Parque de los Indies.” Adjoining on the west is the “Parque de Colon,” with an area equivalent to four large city blocks. Stately royal palms, india rubber trees, flowering majaguas, cocoanuts and rare tropical plants, render this park one of the most interesting in the City.

Leading away from the head of the Parque de Colon we find a wide avenue known as La Reina, that extends westward and upward to the summit of Belascoain, where its width is more than doubled in the Avenue known as Carlos Tercero. This continues west between two long rows of shade trees, outside of which are two more drives running parallel to the main or central avenue.

This continues out beyond the Botanical Gardens, the Quinto de los Molinos, whence the main street curves around the crest of the Plateau of El Principe, and continues on two miles to Colon Cemetery near the further end of the Plateau, on the east bank of the Almandares.

Colon cemetery is one of the finest in Latin America. The monument dedicated to the seventeen firemen who perished beneath the falling wall of a burning house, consists of a single shaft some fifty feet in height, surmounted by the figure of an angel, supporting in her arms an exhausted fireman. Cameos in marble of the faces of the men who died in the performance of duty, are cut around the base of the monument. Another beautiful example of the sculptor’s art stands above the tomb of the “Inocentes,” where lie buried the bodies of the eight youths who were executed by the Spanish Volunteers, at the foot of the Prado on November 27, 1871. In this cemetery are buried also many of Cuba’s famous men and women whose graves are carefully kept, and on Decoration Day are visited by thousands of people, friends, relatives and admirers, who leave their tributes of flowers, kind thoughts and tears.

Music in all its varied forms, from grand opera to the rhythmic beat of the kettle drum, (which plays such an important part in the orchestras of native negroes) probably furnishes the chief source of pleasure and entertainment in the Republic of Cuba. The Havanese have always been a music loving people, and really excellent musicians are common in the Capital.

The Municipal Band of Havana, with some eighty artists, under the direction of Guillermo Tomas, furnishes music, either in Central Park or the Malecon, several evenings each week. It is in attendance also at nearly all official functions, and funerals of prominent men, soldiers, and officers of the Government.

This same band has won at different times the admiration and approval of many audiences in the United States, including that of critical Boston, where concerts were given in Symphony Hall in 1915. It was also heard at New York City’s Tercentenary Celebration during the fall of the same year. Director Tomas is very proud of the medal awarded to his band by the judges of the Buffalo Exposition in 1901.

Many other excellent bands belonging to the Navy, and to different branches of the Army, are noted for their music, and share with the Municipal in entertaining the public during different evenings of the week at the Malecon, and at various parks scattered throughout the City.

The Conservatory of Music located on Galiano Street near Concordia Street has turned out many brilliant artists during its career of half a century or more. Recitals of music are usually held in the National Theatre or in the Salons of the Academy of Arts and Sciences on Cuba Street. In these halls nearly all the celebrated artists of the world have given concerts, and hardly a week passes without entertainments by the best local talent.

Next to music, driving, either in automobiles or open carriages, over the beautiful “Careteras” radiating from the City, furnishes probably the most popular form of diversion in Cuba. Nearly every evening throughout the year, the view of the Malecon where the Prado and the beautiful Gulf Shore Drive meet is a scene of animation not soon to be forgotten.

The circular Glorieta, with its dome-shaped roof, supported on heavy stone columns, shelters some one of the famous National bands while hundreds of people in machines, in carriages, on stone benches and iron seats, enjoy the music and between selections chat about the various topics of the day. From eight until ten, under the shadow of the grim old fortress “la Punta,” and in the blaze of electric lights which line the Prado and the Malecon, this diversion holds the public, including all grades of society, from the highest officials to the humblest clerk, or girl worker in the tobacco factories, who enjoy the benefits of a true democracy, social and political and financial.

Some two miles west of the mouth of the Almandares, a little inlet known as La Playa, fairly well protected from the outer sea, furnishes the nearest bathing beach for the citizens of Havana and visitors from abroad. Since the temperature of the Gulf Stream which sweeps along this part of the northern coast is practically uniform throughout the year, bathing may be indulged in with pleasure both summer and winter. In the latter season, however, owing to cool winds that sometimes blow across the Gulf from the north, only visitors from the United States and tourists take advantage of this sport. The residents of Havana confine their bathing season largely to the strictly summer months from May until November.

The Havana Yacht Club stands just back from the beach, and from its front extends some two hundred feet out into the water a splendid concrete pier, shaded by canvas awnings, and patronized by members of the club and its guests. This club was established during the first Government of Intervention and counts among its members many of the best families of Havana. The interest in yachting has grown rapidly and every year brings with it interesting sloop yacht and motor boat races, held either at the Playa or at Varadero, near Cardenas.

During the bathing season the Marine Band furnishes music from five until seven in the afternoons. This is enjoyed not only by the members of the Yacht Club, but also by crowds who throng the beach for a mile or more on either side.

The finest beach of Cuba, however, is known as the Varadero, located on the sea side of Punta Icaca, a narrow strip of land that projects into the Bay of Cardenas. Here many of the regattas are held during the summer months, when visitors from the capital go to Cardenas to enjoy the twenty mile stretch of outside surf bathing. Bathing places cut out of the coral rocks along the beach of Vedado are also used, especially by the citizens of that locality.

Fishing is a sport that furnishes most enjoyable entertainment for those who are fond of it. Handsome specimens of the finny tribe are frequently brought in by men and boys, who drift in small boats along the coast, a mile or so out, and fish both for the table and for profit. Tourists often find amusement in going out in motor launches at night and fishing for shark off the mouth of the harbor. Since sharks are usually plentiful, and of sufficient size to give the angler a tussle before being brought up to the boat and dispatched, this form of amusement appeals as a novelty to many who come from the interior of the United States.

The markets of Havana are full of excellent fish that are caught all along the Gulf Stream, between Cuba and the coast of Florida. These are brought in sloops provided with the usual fish well, which keeps them fresh until thrown on the wharf just before daylight. The varieties most sought for, or prized, are the red snapper, known in Spanish as the “Pargo,” the sword fish, and the baracuta, which are splendid fish, from two to three feet in length and very game, when caught with hook and line.

Of the smaller fish, the Spanish mackerel, the mullet, the needle fish, and scores of other varieties are always found in abundance. The pompano, peculiar to the Gulf of Mexico, owing to its delicious flavor and its entire lack of small bones is probably the most prized of all, and commands a very high price when it reaches the table of fashionable hotels in the United States.

The game of Jai Alai was introduced here from the Basque Provinces of Spain, during the first Government of Intervention in 1900, and became very popular with both Cubans and visitors from the United States. General Leonard Wood and his aides soon acquired the habit of visiting the Fronton and spending an hour or so in practice every morning.

Jai Alai is played in a building erected for the purpose with a court some two hundred feet in length, inclosed on three sides by smooth stone walls, perhaps forty feet in height, and having a concrete floor. It is played with two opponents on each side known as the blues and the whites. The ball is similar to that of the tennis court, made in Spain with a high degree of resiliency and costing five dollars. It is thrown from a long narrow wicker basket, or scoop, slightly curved at the point, to retain the ball while swung to the head or end wall. The gloved part of the instrument is firmly strapped to the forearm of the player. The ball is caught in this sling-like scoop, and from its length of some thirty inches or more is driven with great force from the further end of the court to the opposite wall. On the rebound it must be caught by one of the two opponents, on either fly or first bound, otherwise a point is scored against the side that falls.

A three-inch band is painted around the end of the court, parallel with the floor and about four feet above it. The ball must strike the wall above this band, and the science of the play is to drive it into the corner at such an angle that your opponents will find it impossible to catch it as it caroms back.

Once the game starts, the ball never stops its flight through the air, from the wicker scoop to the end of the wall and back, until an error is made which counts against the side that fails to catch it. And since the player cannot hold the ball in his wicker sling for an instant, the action is decidedly rapid and the excitement soon becomes intense.

A player may occasionally be seen to leap into the air, catch and fire the ball back to the end of the court, he himself falling flat on his back, leaving his partner to take care of the return. Thirty points constitute the usual game and about an hour is required in which to play it. Jai Alai was suspended during the latter part of President Estrada Palma’s term, on account of the heavy betting that accompanied it, but owing to insistent popular demand, it was again installed at the Fronton in the Spring of 1918.

The game of baseball, brought to Cuba in the year 1900, from the very start gained a popularity among the natives that has never ceased for a moment. It is today the national sport of Cuba, and quite a number of high-priced players from Cuba have occupied prominent places in the big league clubs of the United States. The local clubs of Havana play a splendid game, as several crack teams from the United States have discovered to their surprise and cost, many of them having been sent home badly beaten.

The king of sports, however, in Havana, is horse racing, first introduced from the United States in 1907. Such was its popularity that capitalists some four years ago, were encouraged to erect in the suburb of Marianao the finest racing pavilion in the West Indies. The mile track and the beautiful grounds which surround it are all that lovers of the sport could desire; while the view from the Grand Stand, across a tropical landscape whose hillsides are covered with royal palms, with dark green mountains silhouetting the distant horizon, gives us one of the most picturesque and attractive race tracks in the world.

Between the Plaza and Camp Columbia are located the golf links of Havana, which owing to the natural beauty of the grounds, and the charm of the surrounding country, with its view of the ocean and distant palm covered hills, render golfing a pleasure for at least three hundred and thirty days a year. These natural advantages have made the links of the Country Club of Havana celebrated in all places where golfing news reaches those who are devoted to the game.

In the various public buildings in Havana occupied by the Government of Cuba may be traced many styles of architecture that have followed each other from the beginning of the 16th century to well into the 20th. The old Fort of La Fuerza, that dates from 1538, is now occupied by the Secretary of War and Navy, and from it orders are issued directing the management of the two arms of the service, which in Cuba are combined under one directorate. Aside from modern windows, shutters and up-to-date office furniture, no changes have been made in the general outline or contour of this antiquated old fortress, whose entrance and drawbridge face the Templete close by on the spot where the residents of Cuba held their early Town Councils and listened to the singing of their first mass, four centuries ago.

Next in line of antiquity would come the old San Franciscan Convent, that in 1916 was converted into a spacious and artistic post-office, where the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs looks after that important branch of the Government Service.

Next in point of age comes the home of the Department of Public Works in the Maestranza, along the northeastern front of which runs a remnant of the old sea wall, extending along the west shore of the harbor from the Cathedral to the head of Cuba Street. This thick walled building, of only two stories, began as an iron and brass foundry, in which cannon were made several centuries ago and during later years of Spanish Colonial occupancy was used as a warehouse for rifles, sabres, pistols and small arms in general. Here were outfitted officers and men of the Spanish Volunteers, or loyalists of the Island, during Cuba’s century of revolutions. With the occupation of American troops in 1900, this building, covering over a block of ground, was converted into offices of the Sanitary Department and allied branches, who vouched for the city’s health and cleanliness during that period. It was here that Major Gorgas, now Major General, held sway and directed the campaign that exterminated the stegomyia mosquito, and thus put an end to the dreaded scourge of yellow fever in Cuba. It is at present occupied by the various branches of Public Works under the direction of Col. JosÉ R. Villalon, who has earned the reputation of being one of the most tireless and persistent workers in the Government. The National Library, whose entrance faces on Chacon Street at present, shares the accommodations of the Maestranza.

The Department of Sanitation, with all of its vast ramifications, whose jurisdiction covers the entire Island, is located in an old colonial building fronting on Belascoain near the corner of Carlos Tercero Street, and with its ample patio covers an entire block of ground. This Department is located more nearly at the center of modern Havana than any of the other Government offices.

One of the oldest public buildings, and the largest used for purposes of Government, known as La Hacienda, is located on the water front between Obrapia Street and the Plaza de Armas. During the many years of Spanish rule, not only the Custom House, but nearly all the more important branches of Government, were located within its walls. With the inauguration of the Republic, the National Treasury was installed in the southwest corner of the building, under the direction of Fernando Figuerdo, who has retained this position of trust during all changes of administration. The remainder of the ground floor is occupied by the National Lottery and offices connected with that Institution, which extend into the entresuelo, or half-story, just above. The second floor is occupied by the Hacienda, or Treasury Department, whose offices surround the central patio on all four sides. The third and fourth floors are devoted to the central offices of the Department of Agriculture, including the headquarters of its Secretary, General Sanchez Agramonte. The upper floor, or azotea, is used by the Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture. The Hacienda is rather an imposing building from the Bay, on which it faces, and plays a very important part in the Government work of the Island.

To the outside world the best known building is probably the old Governor-General’s palace, fronting on the Plaza de Armas and occupying the square of ground between Tacon and Mercaderes Streets and between Obispo and O’Reilly Streets. The palace is two stories in height and belongs to what may be termed the modern colonial style of Cuban architecture, with very high ceilings, enormous doors and tall iron-barred windows that descend to the floor. The interior of the Palace is occupied by a very pretty palm court with a statue of Christopher Columbus posing in the center, facing the wide deep entrance that opens from the Plaza. This building was erected in 1834, as a residence and headquarters for the Governors General sent out from Spain, many of whom have occupied the Palace between that date and the year 1899, when the last Governor General took his departure. It was here that General Martinez Campos, in the winter of 1896, penned his cablegram to the Spanish sovereign, stating that Generals Maximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo, with their insurgent forces, had crossed the Trocha into Pinar del Rio, for which reason he tendered his resignation, acknowledging his failure to arrest the tide of Cuba’s War of Independence. Within this same palace General Weyler planned his scheme of reconcentration, or herding of the pacificos, non-combatants, old men, women and children, into barbed wire stockades, where a quarter of a million of them died of exposure, disease and hunger. It is said that when informed of their condition and the fearful death rate, he remarked, “Excellent! Let these renegade mothers die. We will replace them with women who will bear children loyal to Spain.” It was here also that his more humane and civilized successor, General Blanco, who in the last days of 1897 had tried hard to save Spain’s one remaining colony in America, felt the shock of the explosion that sank the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in February, 1898, and exclaimed as he looked across the bay toward the wreck: “This will mark the saddest day of Spain’s history.” Within the same room too, Cuba’s first President, the beloved and revered Tomas Estrada Palma, with tears of humiliation in his eyes, handed his resignation as President to the American Secretary of War, William H. Taft, and left for his almost forgotten farm in the forests back of Manzanillo, where he passed his last days as a martyr to the greed and cruelty of his own people.

Diagonally across from the old Presidential Palace, on the northwest corner of the Plaza de Armas, stands the Senate Chamber, a two-story building of the same attractive architecture found in the old Palace. It is in a way a companion to this building, having been designed and directed as the home and office of the various Lieutenant-Generals of the Island, in which capacity it served until the termination of Spanish rule in Cuba. During the two years of American Intervention, various military departments made their headquarters within this structure, but with the installation of the Republic in 1902 it was formally dedicated to the use of the Senate, and officers connected with that branch of the Legislative government. The lofty salon fronting the Plaza de Armas served as the Senate Chamber. The 24 members of the upper house held sessions there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week. As with the Presidential Palace, the somewhat lavish use of marble in patios, floors, stairways, balconies, etc., is much in evidence in this building.

Just north of the Senate Chamber, and covering the east side of the long block on Tacon Street, between the Palace and the Bay, are located the Bureau of Secret Service, the Department of Government, and those of State of Justice, all installed at the present time in the same building.

This building during Colonial days was occupied by the Department of Engineers, and with the beginning of American intervention was turned over to Brigadier General William A. Ludlow, to whose energy is due the credit of rapidly and effectively cleaning up the city of Havana after its sanitary abandonment of three centuries duration. General Ludlow shared the building with General Enoch Crowder. The Palace of State and Justice has been remodeled and renovated from foundation to azotes. All of its floors and most of its walls are now finished and decorated in a manner appropriate to the uses to which it is dedicated.

During the regime of General Leonard Wood, through an official decree of that most competent commander, three public buildings were added to the capital of the Republic, each now bearing his name in an appropriate placque or tablet in the wall. The first of these was a Bacteriological Laboratory, now known as the General Wood Laboratory, located on Carlos Tercero Street in front of the Botanical Gardens. Bacteriological experiments, which up to that time had been conspicuous by their absence, have since been carried on faithfully in Havana under the direction of the celebrated expert in that science, Dr. Aristides Agramonte.

Next in order was a handsome three-story stone building, located on Belascoain a block from the corner of Carlos Tercero Street, dedicated to the school of Industrial Arts and Sciences. The instruction given in this Institution since its foundation in 1901, has been efficient, and of excellent service to the youth of Havana, many of whom have taken very kindly to this much needed innovation.

The third of these institutions fathered by General Wood is the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts, located on Cuba Street near Amargura Street. This institution has been a boon and a blessing to the intellectual life of Havana, since for the first time suitable quarters were offered to celebrated lecturers, artists and musicians, who find in Havana appreciative audiences, and where, since the founding of the Academy, local talent had a fitting theatre in which to display its merit.

Since the beginning of the Republic in 1902, under President Estrada Palma, the old Governor General’s Palace was found rather limited in its accommodations. Not only was it compelled to shelter the President and his family, together with the many offices belonging to the Executive Department, but it also shared its accommodations with the City Council, and many of the dependencies of that Institution. With the rapid growth of the City, and the unavoidable increase in the work of all departments, consequent on the development of commerce and trade with the outside world, these quarters, each year, have been found increasingly cramped and unsatisfactory.

During the regime of President JosÉ Miguel Gomez, a new Presidential palace was planned, and work was begun on it on the site formerly occupied by the Villa Nueva Station, belonging to the United Railways of Havana. This ample space, facing for several blocks on the Prado and Colon Park, was exchanged, by an Act of Congress, for the old Arsenal Grounds on the water front, desired by the railways for a Grand Central Station, for which they were excellently adapted. The plans of this structure, as well as the beginning of the work, were found to be most unsuited to a Presidential Palace, and by order of President Menocal, at the suggestion of the Secretary of Public Works, work was discontinued and abandoned for other plans and better construction.

Previous to the inauguration of President Menocal funds were voted for the erection of a Provincial Palace or State House, on the property belonging to the Government located between Monserrate and Zuleuta Streets, just at the head of the long, beautiful stretch of open land that sweeps down to the sea from the crest of the low hill, where rests the last remnant of the city walls. This location, with its view of the Luz Caballero Park, of the entrance of the Bay of Havana and the Morro Headland on the opposite side, is one of the finest in the City, and naturally appealed to the artistic taste of General Menocal as the true location for a Presidential Palace. The Provincial Building had been planned on a scale altogether unsuited for the offices of a Provincial Council, whose members were limited to less than ten, and whose services were of so little utility that several proposals for their discontinuance had been considered. More than all, funds for the completion of the building had been more than exhausted, and large debts to contractors were pending. To relieve this emergency and liquidate the indebtedness, it was finally resolved by the National Congress to take over the property, reimbursing the Provincial Government with the $540,000 which they had expended, and to dedicate this building to the purpose of a Presidential Palace that would be more appropriate to the demands of the Executive Department in a rapidly growing Republic.

A million dollars was appropriated for this purpose, which sum has since been augmented in order to carry out the interior decoration of the building along lines that would be in keeping with its proposed use. The new Presidential Palace is four stories in height built of white stone, the architecture being a harmonious combination of the Medieval and Renaissance, terminating with a magnificent dome that rises from the center of the building. The interior decoration of the new Palace has had the benefit of skilled experts, and everything is in harmony with the purpose to which the building was dedicated. The great Salon de Honor is in the style of Louis XVI, while the State Dining Room is modeled after the Italian Renaissance. The main entrance, principal staircase, the hall and the general dining-room are of Spanish Renaissance. The Salon de Damas is decorated in modern French style. All of the other rooms that pertain to the personal equipment of the Palace, and comprise the east wing, follow the same general line of architecture and decorations, varying only in design and colors. The Palace is beyond doubt, in location, design and decoration, one of the most beautiful and interesting structures of its kind in the western hemisphere.

Work on the new capitol building, which is to replace the architectural mistake of its original founders, was begun in 1918, with the purpose of making this building the most imposing and stately modern structures of its kind in the West Indies. It will be four stories in height and cover 5,940 square meters of ground, with a floor space of 38,195 square meters. Above this spacious structure will rise a splendid dome in keeping with the architecture of the main building. One half of the building will be devoted to the use of the House of Representatives, while the other will be occupied by the Senate. It will contain offices and apartments for the Vice President, Committee halls, etc., and will be furnished with all of the conveniences and improvements of modern times. The Hall of Representatives will accommodate 133 members, and may be increased up to 218. The Senate Chamber has ample capacity for the 24 senators, with accommodations in each of these Congressional halls for visitors and the general public. Elevators will reach all floors and the interior decorations will be in keeping with the purpose to which the new Capitol Building is devoted.

During the Presidency of General Mario Menocal, work was begun on the National Hospital, which when completed, will be one of the finest institutions of its kind in the world. The grounds are located on the northwest corner of Carlos Tecero and Belascoain Streets, occupying the eastern extension of the Botanical Gardens that adjoin the hospital grounds on the west. The location, near the center of what may be termed modern Havana, is excellent, and the work as planned will constitute a very important adjunct to the maintenance of health in Havana.

The plans contemplate the erection of 32 modern buildings, constructed of white limestone and reinforced concrete. Sixteen, or one-half of these had been finished in the fall of 1918. This hospital when complete will cost approximately a million and a half of dollars, and will rank with those of the best of America and Europe. The institution has been named in memory of General Calixto Garcia.