The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

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.