 | |
  Museo Parque de Bombas Location within Puerto Rico | |
| Established | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Location | Plaza Las Delicias, Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Coordinates | 18°00′43″N 66°36′49″W / 18.011905°N 66.613738°W |
| Type | Firefighting museum |
| Collections | Equipment, Records, and Dispatch & Transportation |
| Visitors | 88,837 (2000)[1] |
| Founder | Rafael Cordero Santiago |
| Curator | Arch. Pablo Ojeda O'Neill[2] |
| Owner | Autonomous Municipality of Ponce |
| Public transit access | SITRAS |
| Website | Website |
Museo Parque de Bombas[3] (Parque de Bombas Museum) is a museum located inside the historic Parque de Bombas in the Ponce Historic Zone in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
This museum is located at the Plaza Las Delicias town square, directly behind the Ponce Cathedral. It is housed in a building that once housed the city's main (and, initially, its only) firehouse. The building where the museum is located, has been heralded both for its historical and architectural roles in Puerto Rican society. Historically, it was Puerto Rico's first ever fire station.[4] The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[5]
As municipal firehouses in Puerto Rico were reorganized into a commonwealth-level agency in 1943, called the Firemen Services of Puerto Rico,[6] a more modern spacious firehouse was built in the 1960s a block from Parque de Bombas. The new modern firehouse, now itself occupied by Instituto de Música Juan Morel Campos, displaced the now-historic Parque de Bombas into more of a supportive and administrative firefighting role, whereas the new firehouse, located at Calle Cristina and Calle Mayor streets, became the main firehouse for the town.
In 1990, after 108 years of uninterrupted service as a firehouse, the Parque de Bombas firehouse was turned into the Museo Parque de Bombas. The museum traces the people and events of the Ponce firefighters throughout its history. The museum opened under the administration of Mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago. The architect who rebuilt and reconditioned the structure into a museum in 1990 was Pablo Ojeda O'Neill.[2] At over 100,000 visitors per year, it is Ponce's most visited museum, and Puerto Rico's second most visited landmark, after Castillo El Morro.[7]
- ^ Reinaldo E. Gonzalez Blanco. El Turismo Cultural en Ponce durante el Plan Ponce en Marcha, 1900-2000. Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, Editor. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Professional Editions. 2018. p.65. ISBN 978-1-64131-139-7
- ^ a b Caminata Guiada: Centro Historico de Ponce page 6. [dead link]
- ^ Municipio de Ponce. Enciclopedia Puerto Rico. 2017. Editorial Enciclopedia Puerto Rico. Accessed 6 February 2019.
- ^ Adventure Guide to Puerto Rico. Kurt Pitzer and Tara Stevens. Page 226. Accessed 30 March 2018.
- ^ National Register of Historic Places. Accessed. 31 July 2009.
- ^ Armando Morales-Pares, State Architect, and Abelardo Gonzalez-Architect, State Historic Preservation Office, 23 May 1984. In National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form – Parque de Bombas de Ponce – (Ponce Firehouse). United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 84003150. 12 July 1984.
- ^ Reinaldo E. Gonzalez Blanco. “El turismo Cultural en Ponce durante el Plan Ponce en Marcha, 1990-2000). p. 66. Ed. Neysa Rodrigues Deynes. 2018. Ponce, PR: Professional Editions.