Hi guys I'm alive and ready to pump up some history back in this rusty dusty blog. There are still some bugs i have fix with the like, share FB buttons down below but the tweet button seems to work so please tweet if you have the time, I appreciate it.
Alright, this my friends is the Don Roman Santos building a fancy 6 storey neoclassic inspired building located at Sta. Cruz, Manila. Usually you'll see this building often if either you're from FEATI or commuters to LRT up to Carriedo station. Now i dont know much of my architecture wits so architects out there, please bear with me. The building possesses ionic pillars, ornamental pediment, complemented by sculptures of roman design. Now you may be wondering why a building with this taste in architecture exist in a place where vendors, snatchers, addicts thrive in? ( Literally its just 2 blocks away in a street under the shadows of the hideous elevated LRT transit line.)
Well every beautiful building has its own humble beginnings, and Roman Santos here started as the Monte de Piedad, the Philippines' first ever savings bank back in the 1880s. It was constructed by the Archdiocese of Manila to facilitate the city for the Galleon Trade as the City of Manila was flourishing economically.
In the turn of the American Era, the Americans expanded the main building to hold more loans, it continued to flourish until the start of World War II when Manila took a turn for the worse. The building survived the war and eventually the Asian Financial Crisis and even to this day loans for the poorest of the poor. By that time, the building was added with 4 more floors, leaving the original edifice with added aesthetics.
