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LOCAL Monday 16 SepteMber 2024
In celebrating 200 years of Oranjestad...

Learn about the history of the famous town hall!

(Oranjestad)—If you’ve
ever taken a stroll through The house was designed
main street Oranjestad, by architect Chibi Wever,
you may have stumbled and constructed under
upon a big green house the leadership of famous
with beautiful colonial master carpenter, Dada
design. This legendary Picus, who was famous at
house, now used as a town the time for his construction
hall for civil marriages, was of beautiful buildings.
once owned by a wealthy
doctor and formed part The construction of the
of the elite neighborhood house started once Jacobo
in Oranjestad. and Maria got engaged. It
is said that during the time
Jacobo Eloy Arends was of construction, Maria was
an Aruban physician, not allowed to see the
and in lived in Oranjestad building nor be anywhere
during the 1920s. In 1922, near the construction site.
he married Maria Monica It wasn’t until after her
Lacle, the daughter of honeymoon that she saw
well-known business man the completed mansion
at the time, Adriaan Lacle. for the first time, furnished
The two lived a posh life entirely by her sisters-in-law.
in the city center, and The mansion also contained
their mansion—once the the doctor’s office, as
center for neighborhood well as a pharmacy. After
parties—now serves as a the death of Jacobo, the
public town hall for civil house was inherited by his
marriages and is a cultural son, an Aruban dentist,
monument on the island. who converted Jacobo’s

office into his own dental Cartagena, Colombia.
practice. Over the years, Jacobo and Maria’s
the house was rented and mansion was situated in Nowadays, this mansion
used by third parties, but front of another famous lies in ruins. However,
eventually fell into disrepair, mansion, owned by the Aruban government
as the maintenance cost Jacobo’s brother Frederico recently announced
became too high to cover. Maximiliaan (Machi) its official restoration,
Arends. Frederico was with plans to convert
The land was sold to Land married to Veneranda this monument into a
Aruba in 1986, but it did (whom the mansion was governmental office
not see a renovation until named after). Their house and public space for
1997. Nowadays, it serves was also constructed visitors of Oranjestad.
to host weddings, and is by Dada Picus, utilizing Source and pictures
attached to a modern Veneranda’s design credited to: “De Kolibrie
building situated behind— vision that was inspired op de Rots (en meer over
the Aruban census office. by a house she saw in the geschiedenis van