Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño (building)
Encyclopedia
The Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño building (or Banco Crédito, for short), a historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico
, was the first and main office of the famed Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño (English: Ponce Credit and Savings Bank), and represents one of the last examples of the once popular turn-of-the-century eclectic architecture. The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
on June 25, 1987. It was built in 1924. The building was owned by Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño which was one of the largest banking companies in the country of Puerto Rico during most of the twentieth century.
. It is bounded by Mayor Street. Amor street was also called Callejon Amor, or Amor Alley; literally, Love Alley. In 1991, Amor street was converted into a promenade and renamed Paseo Antonio S. Arias Ventura, after the long-time employee of Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño who started as a custodian and rose to become the bank's general manager.
. Banco Crédito was designed and built by Francisco Porrata Doria
, who at the time had recently returned to Puerto Rico after studying engineering at Cornell University
and architectural courses at Columbia University
. Porrata Doria was one of the island's finest architects, a pioneer in the development of a local modern architecture, and one of the architects responsible for what can be called "Ponce Monumental Architecture", of which Banco Crédito is a good example. Among the directors and officers of this prominent bank were some of the most recognized names in the city of Ponce and Puerto Rico at large, including former Ponce mayor, Ulpiano Colom
.
This building together with the one next door it, Banco de Ponce
, exemplify the effort of local financial institutions to compete with US
-based banks for the wealth of Puerto Rico's booming sugar
economy.
Banco Crédito's monumental exhuberance expresses the pride of the institution, its solidity, and its capacity to hold its own against far more wealthy Stateside institutions competing for the dollars of the local moneyed classes.
The Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceños setting on the city's main square contributes to the elegance of this part of the city. Several adjacent structures are already listed in the National Register, including the old Firehouse
(1883) the City Hall
(1845) and the Cathedral
(1841). The latter's facade is a 1932 Porrata-Doria design.
. It is a two-story masonry
and concrete building located near the southeastern end of Ponce's main square. It sits on a corner lot, looking southwestward towards the main street, Plaza Degetau (Calle Atocha).
It is a single, compact volume which wraps itself around the corner in a dramatic curve that corresponds to the chamfer
ed corner required since the late 19th century by city ordinances. The main two levels have nearly twenty-feet-high ceilings, thus giving the structure sufficient bulk so as to stand out within its context. Verticality is accented by the use of colossal Corinthian pilaster
s, square and paired at the facades to each street and round and single at the corner.
The exterior is compositionally organized in three levels: the bottom one is a base executed in the pink limestone
common to this area; the central and main body is defined by the aforementioned colossal pilasters, which articulate the openings of the two main floors in three-bay modules with additional one-bay modules flanking the longer, Amor Street facade.
The upper body is an elaborate entablature with garland
s, dentils, and a projecting, bracketed upper cornice. On top there is a balustered railing filling the space between three broken pediments, the one on the corner curved, with medallions on their centers. The medallions on the facades contain stained glass inserts, and the one on the corner a clock. First-floor openings are arched, those on the second are rectangular. The first-floor windows are covered by bulging cages of fine cast-iron bars; those on the second floor are baluster
ed. The entire ensemble is topped by a copper roof in a Mansard configuration.
Officers and historians with the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office have stated that "The Banco Crédito building, overall, is a fine example of the early twentieth century Beaux-Arts style which is extensively represented in the Ponce architecture of this period."
bank, a Spanish
concern that bought the assets of Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceño during the late 1970s.
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
, was the first and main office of the famed Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño (English: Ponce Credit and Savings Bank), and represents one of the last examples of the once popular turn-of-the-century eclectic architecture. The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on June 25, 1987. It was built in 1924. The building was owned by Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño which was one of the largest banking companies in the country of Puerto Rico during most of the twentieth century.
Location
The building is located on Calle Atocha (Atocha Street) and Paseo Arias (Arias Promenade), facing Plaza DegetauPlaza Degetau
Plaza Degetau, formally Plaza Federico Degetau, is the larger of two plazas at Plaza Las Delicias, the main city square in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The other plaza is named Plaza Muñoz Rivera and is located north of Plaza Degetau. The square is notable for its fountains and for the various...
. It is bounded by Mayor Street. Amor street was also called Callejon Amor, or Amor Alley; literally, Love Alley. In 1991, Amor street was converted into a promenade and renamed Paseo Antonio S. Arias Ventura, after the long-time employee of Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño who started as a custodian and rose to become the bank's general manager.
History and Significance
Built in 1924 as the main office for the expanding Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño bank this building represents one of the last examples of the once popular turn-of-the-century eclectic architecture so common in Ponce after the 1918 earthquake1918 Puerto Rico earthquake
The San Fermín earthquake, also known as the Puerto Rico earthquake of 1918, was a major earthquake that struck the island of Puerto Rico at 10:14am on October 11, 1918. The magnitude for the earthquake has been reported at around 7.5 ; however, that might not be an exact number...
. Banco Crédito was designed and built by Francisco Porrata Doria
Francisco Porrata Doria
Francisco Porrata-Doria was a twentieth-century Puerto Rican architect from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Porrata-Doria was a pioneer in the development of the local modern architecture and one of the architects responsible for what has been called "Ponce Monumental Architecture", of which the Banco Crédito...
, who at the time had recently returned to Puerto Rico after studying engineering at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and architectural courses at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Porrata Doria was one of the island's finest architects, a pioneer in the development of a local modern architecture, and one of the architects responsible for what can be called "Ponce Monumental Architecture", of which Banco Crédito is a good example. Among the directors and officers of this prominent bank were some of the most recognized names in the city of Ponce and Puerto Rico at large, including former Ponce mayor, Ulpiano Colom
Ulpiano Colóm
Ulpiano Colóm y Ferrer was a Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1898.-Political life:Colóm y Ferrer became mayor of Ponce on 8 July 1898. He was mayor of Ponce at the time when the Americans took possession of the city on July 28, 1898....
.
This building together with the one next door it, Banco de Ponce
Banco de Ponce
Banco de Ponce was one the largest banks in Puerto Rico. In 1990 it merged with Banco Popular creating Puerto Rico's largest bank. At this time, Banco Popular's holding company changed its name to BanPonce Corporation. Banco de Ponce had established an agency in New York that it had converted to a...
, exemplify the effort of local financial institutions to compete with US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based banks for the wealth of Puerto Rico's booming sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
economy.
Banco Crédito's monumental exhuberance expresses the pride of the institution, its solidity, and its capacity to hold its own against far more wealthy Stateside institutions competing for the dollars of the local moneyed classes.
The Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceños setting on the city's main square contributes to the elegance of this part of the city. Several adjacent structures are already listed in the National Register, including the old Firehouse
Parque de Bombas
Parque de Bombas is a historic firehouse building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is one of Puerto Rico's most notable buildings, with some considering it "by far the most easily recognized landmark in the Island". It is located at the Plaza Las Delicias town square, directly behind the Ponce Cathedral...
(1883) the City Hall
Ponce City Hall
The Ponce City Hall is located on Calle Degetau, across from Plaza Las Delicias in the Ponce Historic Zone in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The building serves as the seat of the executive branch of government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce, including the office of the Mayor of Ponce. It is the...
(1845) and the Cathedral
Ponce Cathedral
The Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe or simply, Ponce Cathedral, is the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ponce located in downtown Ponce, Puerto Rico. The cathedral lies in the middle of Ponce's town square, known as Plaza Las Delicias, located at the center of the Ponce Historic...
(1841). The latter's facade is a 1932 Porrata-Doria design.
Architecture
The building's architect was Francisco Porrata DoriaFrancisco Porrata Doria
Francisco Porrata-Doria was a twentieth-century Puerto Rican architect from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Porrata-Doria was a pioneer in the development of the local modern architecture and one of the architects responsible for what has been called "Ponce Monumental Architecture", of which the Banco Crédito...
. It is a two-story masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
and concrete building located near the southeastern end of Ponce's main square. It sits on a corner lot, looking southwestward towards the main street, Plaza Degetau (Calle Atocha).
It is a single, compact volume which wraps itself around the corner in a dramatic curve that corresponds to the chamfer
Chamfer
A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius"."Chamfer" is a term commonly...
ed corner required since the late 19th century by city ordinances. The main two levels have nearly twenty-feet-high ceilings, thus giving the structure sufficient bulk so as to stand out within its context. Verticality is accented by the use of colossal Corinthian pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s, square and paired at the facades to each street and round and single at the corner.
The exterior is compositionally organized in three levels: the bottom one is a base executed in the pink limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
common to this area; the central and main body is defined by the aforementioned colossal pilasters, which articulate the openings of the two main floors in three-bay modules with additional one-bay modules flanking the longer, Amor Street facade.
The upper body is an elaborate entablature with garland
Garland
A garland is a class of decoration, of which there are many types.Garland may also refer to:-Places:*Garland, Arkansas, a town in Miller County*Garland County, Arkansas*Garland, Maine, a town in Penobscot County...
s, dentils, and a projecting, bracketed upper cornice. On top there is a balustered railing filling the space between three broken pediments, the one on the corner curved, with medallions on their centers. The medallions on the facades contain stained glass inserts, and the one on the corner a clock. First-floor openings are arched, those on the second are rectangular. The first-floor windows are covered by bulging cages of fine cast-iron bars; those on the second floor are baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
ed. The entire ensemble is topped by a copper roof in a Mansard configuration.
Officers and historians with the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office have stated that "The Banco Crédito building, overall, is a fine example of the early twentieth century Beaux-Arts style which is extensively represented in the Ponce architecture of this period."
Contemporary use
Today, the bank is used as a branch of the Banco de SantanderGrupo Santander
The Santander Group is a banking group centered on Banco Santander, S.A., the largest bank in the Eurozone and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation. According to Forbes Magazine Global 2000, it is the 13th largest public company in the world...
bank, a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
concern that bought the assets of Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceño during the late 1970s.
See also
- Ponce City Archives
- Banco de Santander Archives
- Porrata Doria Family Archives
- Banco de Ponce (building)Banco de Ponce (building)The Banco de Ponce building, a historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico, was the first and main office of Banco de Ponce until the company merged with Banco Popular in 1990. Though its headquarters had moved to a presumptous building in Hato Rey's Milla de Oro by then, Banco de Ponce continued to...