Sight-seeing may begin from the Tivoli or International with a walk or ride down the Avenida Central, which goes first in a rather southerly direction, but in town when crossing the plaza about east and west. The northern part of the town is rather new, belonging to the Canal period, French and American. On the right at some little distance a three-story white concrete building, very ornate, with broad portico, is the club house of the Spanish Benevolent Society. Next door is the American Consulate. Two blocks farther is the Plaza Santa Ana, with trees, plants, and walks, where on Thursday nights there is a band concert and hundreds of people promenading. Besides the Church, there are saloons, a Variety Theater with roof garden, promenade balcony, and fine interior decorations, erected 1911-12, and on the west side the Metropole Hotel. On the road, one block south of the plaza, leading west to Balboa is the Santo Tomas Hospital, with 350 beds, under the direction of an American doctor with good nurses and physicians, maintained by the Panama Government. The three cemeteries are beyond, one each for Chinese, Hebrews, and Christians. Tragic tales are told of the yellow fever days, and space for burial is still leased.
Three blocks from the Plaza on the Central avenue is the Church of La Merced. Diagonally across from it is a piece of the old wall formerly extending from tidewater on one side to the other. One should climb the steps to get an idea of the walls, the cost of which caused wonder to the King of Spain. This was one of the bastions commanding the drawbridge and the sabanas or plains to the north. Here the youth now play tennis, and a circus encamps once a year. The area is at least 1500 square feet, and there is a drop of from 30 to 35 feet to the level outside. A parapet 3 feet high still shows the embrasures for the brass cannon. The old wall extending to the south had rock faces with earth between.
Beyond this wall is the real city, mostly of natives, with its own peculiar spirit and fascination. They always come back, it is said, when people go away. Here in the narrow streets, plazas, churches, even stores, and on the old sea wall, a spell is woven over those who linger, which has alluring power. The Plaza Independencia, three blocks from the wall, is the heart of the city, a charming place, with the Cathedral on the west, the Central Hotel east, the Bishop’s Palace north, and the Municipal Building and the French Administration Building on the south. The last, four stories high, was built in 1875 as a hotel, but leased to the French and used for offices. The Americans took possession of it May 4, 1904, but finding it to be infested with the stegomia mosquitoes during the yellow fever epidemic in 1905, it was abandoned by them in 1906 when the Chief Engineer moved to Culebra. It is now occupied by the health and municipal bureaus of Panama and by their printing office.
The new Municipal Building, on the site of the old cabildo, council chamber, in which independence was declared in 1821, was completed in 1910 and is called the handsomest building in the city. Here are various offices, the Columbus Library with valuable historical works, a marble bacchante in the corridor, and a front door of a dozen varieties of native hard woods.
The Bishop’s Palace erected 1880, besides his residence, offices, and a boys’ school, has in one corner the office of the Panama Lottery. Though gambling is prohibited by the Panama Constitution, the lease of the company is good till 1918. Every Sunday morning drawings are made for prizes ranging from $1.00 to $3500, taken from 10,000 tickets. It is said that most of the money comes from the Canal workers. The offices of several of the steamship companies are on the Plaza, but that of the Peruvian Line is on 11th street near Central avenue.
Continuing on the Central avenue, passing on the right the French consulate and the American Legation, one reaches the National Palace or Government Building on the left, occupying a whole square, with a central patio. The Assembly Halls and offices are on the south side, the National Theatre on the north and various Government offices on the sides. Begun in 1905 it was finished in 1908. It is of the modified Italian renaissance style and is said to be fireproof. The handsome theater seats 1000 people. There is a week or two of opera and of theater every year. Other entertainments are occasionally held, and public meetings of a non-political nature.
The Plaza Bolívar, formerly San Francisco, is at the southeast corner of the building, with the San Francisco Church and Franciscan convent on the east side, the latter in ruins, destroyed by fire in 1756; the former, also burned, was restored 1785-1790. The church is a basilica with a nave and two aisles, the arches supported by square masonry pillars, and with transept and apse. The high altar is wood painted to imitate marble. A picture in a shrine at the left of the entrance has a very definite representation of purgatory, with a view of heavenly regions above.
The ruins of the old convent still show a fine row of arches. Within are wooden buildings now used as schools.
From the Central avenue going along the water front, one will pass a Methodist Episcopal Church, parsonage, and school, buildings of concrete erected in 1908. At the sea front is the south bastion called The Sea Wall. Under the arches are many dungeons once filthy, where thousands of criminals and political suspects suffered and died. These are used no longer, but the Chiriqui prison, suitably provided and clean, is here located, partly in the large barrack building formerly occupied by the garrison of soldiers. In the late afternoon or early evening one should visit this interesting spot. Close by is the new home of the University Club where some say the best meals in Panama are served and the best collection of English books and periodicals is found. The library and reading room with hardwood floor are sometimes cleared for dancing. The membership of two hundred includes one hundred twenty-five American employees and seventy-five residents of Panama. Organized in 1906 for college men, the restriction was soon abandoned.
Two blocks from the Plaza Bolívar, keeping to the sea front, is the home of the Union Club, a large white building from the roof of which is a fine view of Panama Bay. A swimming tank refilled at every tide is among its luxuries.