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local Monday 3 June 2024

In celebrating 200 years of Oranjestad...

Learn about the history of the famous town hall!

(Oranjestad)—If you’ve ever aan Lacle. The two lived a Maria got engaged. It is of Jacobo, the house was weddings, and is attached to
taken a stroll through main posh life in the city center, said that during the time of inherited by his son, an Aru- a modern building situated
street Oranjestad, you may and their mansion—once the construction, Maria was not ban dentist, who converted behind—the Aruban census
have stumbled upon a big center for neighborhood par- allowed to see the building Jacobo’s office into his own office.
green house with beautiful ties—now serves as a public nor be anywhere near the dental practice. Over the
colonial design. This leg- town hall for civil marriages construction site. It wasn’t years, the house was rented Jacobo and Maria’s mansion
endary house, now used and is a cultural monument until after her honeymoon and used by third parties, but was situated in front of anoth-
as a town hall for civil mar- on the island. that she saw the completed eventually fell into disrepair, er famous mansion, owned
riages, was once owned by mansion for the first time, fur- as the maintenance cost be- by Jacobo’s brother Fred-
a wealthy doctor and formed The house was designed nished entirely by her sisters- came too high to cover. erico Maximiliaan (Machi)
part of the elite neighbor- by architect Chibi Wever, in-law. Arends. Frederico was mar-
hood in Oranjestad. and constructed under the The land was sold to Land ried to Veneranda (whom
leadership of famous master The mansion also contained Aruba in 1986, but it did not the mansion was named
Jacobo Eloy Arends was an carpenter, Dada Picus, who the doctor’s office, as well as see a renovation until 1997. after). Their house was also
Aruban physician, and in was famous at the time for a pharmacy. After the death Nowadays, it serves to host constructed by Dada Picus,
lived in Oranjestad during his construction of beautiful utilizing Veneranda’s design
the 1920s. In 1922, he mar- buildings. vision that was inspired by a
ried Maria Monica Lacle, the house she saw in Cartagena,
daughter of well-known busi- The construction of the house Colombia.
ness man at the time, Adri- started once Jacobo and
Nowadays, this mansion lies
in ruins. However, the Aru-
ban government recently
announced its official res-
toration, with plans to con-
vert this monument into a
governmental office and
public space for visitors of
Oranjestad. q

Source and pictures credited
to: “De Kolibrie op de Rots
(en meer over the geschie-
denis van Aruba)” by Evert
Bongers.