This ancestral house was built by Dr. Isidro Rodriguez in 1930's as a gift to his ailing wife gregoria Gala at the height of the depression era, and completed in 1935. It was the wish of his wife to have a "Dream Home" for their seven children. Dr. Rodriguez commissioned Architect Juan Nakpil to design and build a house with a team of fine carpenters and craftsmen and to furnish it with items from Manila's leading furniture atelier, Don Gonzalo Puyat. The house was furnished with French Provincial furniture. The house was completed and formally inaugurated on the birthday of Dona Gregoria on May 4, 1935. However Dona Gregoria succumb to her lingering illness, two days before the celebration. But the family cherished their new home , a "labor and a gift of love".
Carmen the eldest of the seven siblings took charge of the house and her siblings. The house, since then had been known as "Dona Carmen's House'. In 1942, during the occupation of the Japanese forces of Sariaya, the second floor became the residence of the Officers of Japan Imperial Army. The family was allowed to occupy the the ground floor and the basement.
In the 1950's Carmen married Judge Vicente Arguelles. She bore him an only child, Glady, who continued to preserve and conserve the house. It is her pioneering idea to open her house to the visitors of Sariaya, sharing the personal and historical memories of the place.
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Front, right corner of the house.
Front, right corner of the house.
Original size: 536px x 800px |
Current: 201px x 300px |
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