Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives (or Buena Vista Plantation in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

), was a coffee

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

located in

Barrio Magueyes Magueyes is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Together with Cerrillos, Machuelo Arriba, Maragüez, Montes Llanos, Portugués, Sabanetas, and Tibes, Magueyes is one of the municipality's eight interior barrios. ...

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

. The original plantation dates from the 19th century. The plantation was started by Don

Salvador de Vives Salvador de Vives Rodó (1784 – 24 November 1845), also known as Salvador Vives, was a Puerto Rican hacendado and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1 January 1840 to 5 January 1842 and then again from 1 January 1844 to 24 November 1845. Hi ...

in 1833.''Hacienda Buena Vista.''
Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico. 2016. Accessed 30 May 2016.''Hacienda Buena Vista.''
Arlene Pabón. U.S. National Park Service: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Page 7. Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office. 9 September 1994. Accessed 30 May 2016. The

Hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...

is located on of fertile land that includes a humid subtropical forest some north of Ponce on Route PR-123,"Gente."
La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. ''Gente'' section. Story 3. 2 September 2009. in Corral Viejo, a subbarrio of Barrio

Magueyes Magueyes is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Together with Cerrillos, Machuelo Arriba, Maragüez, Montes Llanos, Portugués, Sabanetas, and Tibes, Magueyes is one of the municipality's eight interior barrios. ...

. The plantation house was built in the Spanish Colonial style, with the surrounding buildings being built in the local '' Criollo'' style. The original Hacienda covered 482 ''

cuerda The term "cuerda" (Spanish for ''rope'') refers to a unit of measurement in some Spanish-speaking regions, including Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Cuba, Spain, and Paraguay. In Puerto Rico, the term cuerda (and "Spanish acre" It is now owned by the Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Conservation Trust), which operates it as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

which it opened in 1986.

Significance

Hacienda Buena Vista entrance sign, Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico (IMG 3023)

The Hacienda is significant for various reasons. First, it contains the only remaining example of the Barker hydraulic turbine, which was the first reaction type turbine ever made. It was nominated as a Mechanical Engineering landmark by the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

in July 1994.R. Sackett, p. 16. The second reason Hacienda Buena Vista is significant is that it offers one of the best remaining examples of a Puerto Rican coffee

. This is important because in the latter part of the nineteenth century the coffee produced in Puerto Rico and exported to Europe and the United States was considered among the finest in the world. It is said to have even been the favorite at the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

at the time. Hacienda Buena Vista is also significant because it shows the evolution of the coffee industry in the region. Various periods can be appreciated. These range from the cultivation of produce such as plantains (1833–1845); to the production of flour (from rice and corn) (1847–1872). These products were staples for the subsistence of the local population.

Brief history

Hacienda Buena Vista was started as a

truck farm A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

to produce mostly

plantains Plantain may refer to: Plants and fruits * Cooking banana, banana cultivars in the genus ''Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking ** True plantains, a group of cultivars of the genus ''Musa'' * ''Plantaginaceae'', a family of flowerin ...

, bananas,

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and avocados, by Don

in 1833. De Vives was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

arriving from

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and he set up the farm to sell its produce in the Ponce market and in the

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

estates along the southern coast. Originally, the Vives estate covered . In 1845, the son of

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

Salvador added a corn mill operation to the profitable fruit and vegetable production. Later, Don Salvador's grandson oversaw the addition of

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

growing and processing to the plantains and cornmeal, taking advantage of the great coffee-growing boom of the 1880s and 1890s. Don Salvador's son and grandson introduced some of the most innovative farm machinery on the island, powered by a nearby waterfall. Eventually Hacienda Buena Vista would become one of the most successful plantations in the mountains of Puerto Rico. A series of hurricanes and the failing coffee market brought operations at the Hacienda to a standstill by 1900, and gradually Hacienda Buena Vista fell into disrepair and was partially abandoned. By 1937

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

had seriously declined in Puerto Rico, and the plantation was abandoned, becoming mostly a weekend country house for the Vives heirs. Worker barracks, outbuildings and equipment deteriorated rapidly under the humid tropical climate and rainfall. In 1984, the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust bought 86 of the original , with the intention of restoring it. Despite the grave deterioration of the coffee-processing

machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...

and the farm buildings, the Conservation Trust managed to restore the estate so that it could be used to educate the public about the golden era of fine coffee growing in the mountains of Puerto Rico. The original owners donated many of the furnishings, and the Conservation Trust purchased other authentic pieces. Hacienda Buena Vista is today a well-known educational destination. The machinery of the original Hacienda has been put in motion again, farm animals roam the grounds, the farmhouse rooms have been furnished, and the scent of freshly roasted coffee fills the surrounding air. Visitors can take tours through the old Vives country home and explore the plantation buildings and grounds. Authentic 19th-century farm machinery is exhibited that shows how a coffee plantation worked in the 1880s.

Salvador Vives

Migration from Venezuela

Salvador Vives arrived in Puerto Rico from Venezuela fleeing the struggle for independence going on in that country at the beginning of the nineteenth century. At the time he was a 12-year Spanish career officer from the province of

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

in Spain, who had been stationed in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, until he was forced to leave after the defeat of the Spanish Army in the

battle of Carabobo The Battle of Carabobo, on 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Venezuelan General Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led ...

in 1821. It was thus that Vives traveled from Venezuela to Puerto Rico on 27 June 1821 with his wife Isabel Diaz and son Carlos. Accompanying him were also two slaves. He settled in the southern port city of Ponce, where the sugar industry was booming.R. Sackett, p. 17.

Early Puerto Rico years

With no capital to buy sugarcane-growing land, Salvador Vives worked for the municipal government of Ponce during the 1820s and 1830s in assisting other displaced Spanish emigrants and also as a public notary. By 1838 he had enough money to purchase of hilly, undeveloped, tropical forest land in barrio

, to the north of the city of Ponce, and near the Canas River. The land consisted mostly mountainous terrain with thick forest, and far from the town. Fortunately, Vives was able to purchase the lands relatively cheap for the lands in greatest demand at that time were the rich flatlands near the coast that provided the perfect conditions for the sugar-growing industry. The development of a new road in that area,

PR-123 Puerto Rico Highway 123 (PR-123) is a secondary highway that connects the city Arecibo to the city of Ponce. It runs through the towns of Utuado and Adjuntas, before reaching Ponce. A parallel road is being built, PR-10, that is expected to tak ...

, would also guarantee that products from Vives' future farm could be bought down for sale to the marketplace in Ponce with relative easy. The construction of the farm-to-market PR-123 road would prove to be a factor in the success of Vives' hacienda.

Vives’ Hacienda

As a fruits and vegetables hacienda

Hacienda Buena Vista grew

plantain Plantain may refer to: Plants and fruits * Cooking banana, banana cultivars in the genus ''Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking ** True plantains, a group of cultivars of the genus ''Musa'' * ''Plantaginaceae'', a family of flowerin ...

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

s, yams, and

which were bought at

Plaza del Mercado Isabel II Plaza del Mercado de Ponce (English: Ponce Market Plaza) or, formally, Plaza del Mercado Isabel Segunda (often abbreviated as Plaza del Mercado Isabel II), is a historic marketplace building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was inaugurated in 1863 by P ...

in Ponce by the area sugar

owners to feed the slave labor force of their plantations. The hacienda also grew other crops, including

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

, and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

and it also raised

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

oxen An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

s and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

s in the limited lower pastures of the hacienda, in the vicinity of the hacienda's buildings complex. Initially, the hacienda's principal crop was plantain ('' Musa acuminata × balbisiana''). By 1845 there were growing this crop. This acreage grew steadily from the mid-1820s to the early 1840s. Between 1852 and 1860 the production of plantains at the farm had increased from 329,200 to 475,380.R. Sackett, p. 18.

First mill is installed

In 1837 Vives purchased a corn mill, a coffee depulper, a cotton gin, and a rice husking machine, all animal-powered, to process its agricultural goods. During the 1840s the hacienda's economic activity had diversified into produce production and corn flour distribution throughout Puerto Rico's central coastal region. The purchase and installation of the corn mill proved to be a great investment for Vives. Not only did his financial earnings multiplied, but he was also able to gain enough prominence to be elected mayor of Ponce, between 1841 and 1845. He served three terms as mayor. During his terms as mayor, Vives had the District Court Center moved from Coamo to Ponce, he also had the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

built, and arranged for the official coat of arms of the city with the

Spanish crown , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

.R. Sackett, p. 19.

First water-powered corn mill

After Salvador Vives' death in 1845, his son Carlos took over the management of the hacienda. "Carlos perceived the production of

corn meal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

to feed sugar plantation slaves would be of enough economic importance to finance the construction of a water-powered corn mill to replace the animal-powered corn mill built by his father. Built between 1845 and 1847, the new corn mill installed by

Carlos Vives Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo (born 7 August 1961) is a Colombian singer, songwriter and actor. He is known for his interpretation of traditional music styles of Colombia such as vallenato, cumbia, champeta, bambuco and porro as well as genres ...

had a sixteen-foot-diameter wooden water wheel that moved the gears for the grinding stones of the corn mill. Carlos powered the new corn mill with water derived from the waterfall on the Canas River that traveled through a water canal, which was begun in 1847 and completed in 1851. Within the corn mill structure, Carlos also built a corn toasting room where corn was dried before it was milled. Carlos completed many of the hacienda structures and buildings that today are part of the complex, including the

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

quarters, the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, the warehouse, and the

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

with stables for horses and

s."

The turbine-driven corn mill

The building of the now-historic Barker engine also came under son Carlos Vives tenancy: "In 1847, with the demand for milled corn rising given the increase in sugar plantation slaves around Ponce, Carlos constructed another building for a new corn mill powered with a hydraulic

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...

from the

West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and oth ...

, in Cold Spring, New York. The turbine was patented in the United States, in 1843, by

James Whitelaw The Rev. James Whitelaw BA, MRIA (1749 – 4 February 1813) was an Irish historian, writer, statistician, Anglican priest and philanthropist. Life He was born in County Leitrim and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He was elected a Scholar in ...

, of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The flour from Hacienda Buena Vista gained islandwide prominence due to its excellent quality. From 1847 to 1873, the corn flour of the hacienda reigned supreme over other local mills. Shortly afterwards, a corn mill to pulverize the corn was mounted, and the hacienda's white and yellow corn flour received the gold medal for excellence in the second public exposition celebrated in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

in June 1855." In 1860, the hacienda won awards again at the Puerto Rico Exposition Fair.

Rise and fall of coffee as a main product

Carlos Vives died in 1872. Around this time the sales volume of corn meal, one of the hacienda's primary products, began to decline. Instead of demand for corn meal, world demand for Puerto Rican coffee, was starting to become as significant an export crop as sugar for which Vives could not afford the price of the lands. Envisioning a future for coffee production, in 1892 Carlos's eldest son (also named Salvador Vives like his grandfather) installed coffee depulping and bean husking machine in the old corn mill and ran them both using the original mill wheel. "Production of corn meal and coffee provided a diversified economic basis for the continued success of the hacienda."R. Sackett, p. 20. Some of the best Puerto Rican coffee was produced in the central mountain area of the island around

Yauco Yauco () is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande ...

, Ponce,

Lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these. Lares ...

Maricao Maricao () is a town and the second-least populous municipality of Puerto Rico; it is located at the western edge of the Cordillera Central. It is a small town set around a small square in hilly terrain, north of San Germán, Sabana Grande and ...

Utuado Utuado () is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central mountainous region of the island known as the '' Cordillera Central''. It is located north of Adjuntas and Ponce; south of Hatillo and Arecibo; east of Lares; and west ...

, and Cayey. The Vives’ family hacienda lands were also ideal for coffee production. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Hacienda Buena Vista produced and processed over 5 tons of coffee a year, just for export to Europe. The good days of coffee production at Hacienda Buena Vista, however, came to an end during the dawn of the 20th century when a series of three yearly natural and politico-economic disasters took place, and coffee production in all of Puerto Rico fell from 338 tons to only 8 tons per year. In 1899,

hurricane San Ciriaco The 1899 San Ciríaco hurricane, also known as the 1899 Puerto Rico Hurricane or The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1899, was the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record, and the second-longest-lived tropical cyclone globally on record (in terms ...

struck a hard blow to coffee production in Puerto Rico. After this hurricane, Puerto Rico would never become a coffee exporter again. To exacerbate this, in 1900 the worldwide price of coffee fell to levels that made it considerably more difficult to compete. The third blow came in 1901, when Puerto Rico was included into the United States Customs System, setting the local coffee production at a competitive disadvantage over its European markets. It also dropped Puerto Rico's favored status in US markets. To compensate, the Salvador Vives switched to a successful orange growing program for the New York City market. This new phase of agriculture continued until 1956.

Description of the hacienda

Hacienda Buena Vista is located in Barrio

, in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico at between 160 and 460 meters above sea level. The hills near the hacienda buildings are excellent for cultivating

, and

fruits In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particula ...

. The nearby Canas River provides the power for the power needed to run the hacienda's mills.R. Sackett, p. 6. The hacienda today is made up of an agricultural complex. Its main buildings are grouped together in a central area and the property includes 11 original buildings: the hacienda manor house, the carriage house, the horse stables, the mule stables, the caretaker's house and office, two warehouses, a hurricane shelter, the corn mill, and the slave quarters. There is a water canal system that is still operative, an aqueduct, and a house garden. The coffee bean processing building was rebuilt to look like the original 1892 building.

Manor House and related structures

The

is a 2-story 60x50ft building. It was built in 1845. The ground floor was designed to be used for storage. The second floor contains three bedrooms and a living room. The eastern half of the manor house is made of brick and includes a courtyard, the kitchen, two more bedrooms and a bathroom. The manor house also has garden surrounded by a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

-and-brick fence. The garden served two purposes: "Historically, this garden served as the formal entrance to the hacienda complex; however, it was most often used as a private family place."R. Sackett, p. 13. Dependent on horses for managing the hacienda, its administrators also built a carriage house, stables, and a small caretaker's house.R. Sackett, p. 12. In addition mule stables and caretaker's office were also built.R. Sackett, p. 14. Located opposite the manor house, is the

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

shelter Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locatio ...

. It is a solid brick structure measuring . x , and built . above ground. Its walls, floor and ceiling were made to withstand or dissipate the destructive tropical storms that are common in this region.

Canal and aqueduct

An important component of the plantation was the brick-and-mortar canal which is (18 in. deep by 12 in. wide) and runs some . A water drop height of 360 meters provides the energy needed to run the mills in the hacienda. Vives paid 360 Spanish

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the Dollar sign, same sign, "$", as many currencies na ...

s for the that comprise the area of the Canas River to pride for his canal. The use of the River for the hacienda was authorized by the Spanish Colonial Government in Puerto Rico. The canal and aqueduct were finished in 1851. A series of manifolds are used for diverting the water according to the needs of the hacienda agricultural production: one gate diverts water to the water wheel and the corn mill water turbine, another gate diverts water to the

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

tank, the ornamental washbasin, and the bath, and a third gate diverts water to a race which sends water back to the Canas River.

Coffee de-pulping and husking mill

The coffee de-pulping and husking mill is a 2-story wooden building located to the northwest of the Hacienda manor house. It originally housed the 1845 corn mill but in 1892, with the need for processing the coffee beans produced by Hacienda Buena Vista, the structure was modified to become the coffee husking mill.R. Sackett, p. 8.

Corn mill

A second corn mill at Hacienda Buena Vista was built in 1854. It is a two-story wood-frame structure measuring . wide by long. The actual corn-milling work took place on the floor of this mill. Dried corn making it thru a hopper in this building was processed here. Grinding of the corn into corn meal occurred here. It was also packer into bags here. One of the canals of the aqueduct system ran underneath this building to power the corn mill above. As required for the production of ground coffee, a bean drying station was also built. Thus building dates from 1847. The building had previously served as slave quarters, but after the abolition of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in Puerto Rico in 1873, it was converted into a bean drying building. The pans used for drying the coffee beans were kept in this building as well.

The historic turbine

"The hydraulic turbine for the corn mill was ordered by a Mr. Bennet, in August 1853, as agent for Don Carlos Vives, from the

in Cold Spring, New York. The purchase was made through the Maitland and Phelps Company, also of New York. The turbine follows the design patented by

and James Stirrat, of Paisley, Renfew, Scotland, in 1841."R. Sackett, p. 10.

Technology at the hacienda

Hacienda Buena Vista stood out from among the other haciendas in the region for the use of sophisticated machinery: "The Scotch-type turbine on the pit's floor of the corn mill is a unique piece of hydraulic technology machinery, recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Although the turbine is not a classic 17th-century Baker's centrifugal or reaction turbine wheel it might be a transformed one, since this "Buena Vista Turbine" does not fit within the Baker's description. Nevertheless, the wheels have an element in common since their arms are very similar in so far as it refers to shape, position, and function. On the other hand, it is not a Scotch turbine either, being this a modification of the Baker turbine. Apparently, the Buena Vista turbine builder used the Scotch turbine principles to make the one ''in situ'', adapting at the same time parts of the Baker's design with added improvements of its own. It is significant that in the mid-1840s—while the hacienda was being developed—the Scotch turbine was being patented in the United States after European designs (particularly the La Cour's centrifugal wheel). R. L. Johnson assessed the "Buena Vista Turbine" in the following way: ''Only the three Scotch turbines—first patented in the 1840s—are known to exist in the United States.... This acute shortage of extant early hydromachinery is the principal reason why the technological history of the water motor remains obscure and relatively poorly documented...Recently, however, the discovery of a unique turbine located on a plantation at Ponce, near the south coast of Puerto Rico, promised to open a new window on the past.... The turbine at Hacienda Buena Vista…is the only pre-Scotch type-known to exist and is the sole extant example of a pioneer and historically important machine that was invented at the close of the 17th century by Dr. Baker.... The Buena Vista turbine is, in effect, a missing link in the evolution of mechanical artifacts better known to the historians of technology.'' ( The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, Vol. 4, No. 1

978 Year 978 ( CMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Battle of Pankaleia: Rebel forces under General Bardas Skleros are defeated ...

pp. 55–58)."R. Sackett, p. 23.

Legacy

On 16 July 1994, Robert B. Gaither of the

presented a plaque to the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust designating the Hacienda Buena Vista's hydraulic turbine as a National Historic Monument of Mechanical Engineering. The award was given in recognition not only of the value of the turbine but also of the extraordinary work the Conservation Trust carried in its restoration.

Later and current use

In 1956, the government of Puerto Rico expropriated most of the lands of Buena Vista as a result of a new law to provide land to local farmers. Only 87 acres of land remained with the Vives, including the

and the water channel system. These 87 acres were acquired by the ''Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico'' (Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico) in 1984. In 1986, the Trust restored the hacienda to much of its past glory and turned it into a museum.''Exotic Vernacular: Hacienda Buena Vista in Puerto Rico.''
(WayBack Machine archive.) Aaron Betsky. "Beyond Buildings." Architect: The Magazine of the American Institute of Architects. Retrieved 27 June 2012. The museum opened in 1987. The museum is the only farm museum in Puerto Rico. In 1988, the Trust entirely rebuilt the coffee mill to its 1892 look.R. Sackett, p. 15.

References

* Baralt, Guillermo A. 1988. ''Hacienda Buena Vista.'' Puerto Rico Conservation Trust (Fideicomiso de Conservación). * Baralt, Guillermo A. 1989 ''Esclavos rebeldes: conspiraciones y sublevaciones de esclavos in Puerto Rico (1795–1873).'' Ediciones Huracán, Inc., Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. * Boyer, William W. 1983. ''America's Virgin Islands. A History of Human Rights and Wrongs.'' Carolina Academic Press. Durham, North Carolina. * Buitrago, Carlos. 1892. ''Haciendas cafetaleras y clases terratenientes en el Puerto Rico decimononico.'' Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. * * Landers, Jane. 1990. "African Presence in Early Spanish Colonization." In ''Columbian Consequence. Volume 2. Archaeological and Historical Perspectives on the Spanish Borderlands East'', pp. 315–327, edited by D.H. Thomas. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. * Vidal Armstrong, Mariano. 1988. ''Ponce, Notas para su Historia.'' Oficina de Preservación Histórica. San Juan, Puerto Rico. *Robert Sackett, Preservationist, PRSHPO (Original 1990 draft). Arleen Pabon, Certifying Official and State Historic Preservation Officer, State Historic Preservation Office, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 9 September 1994. In National Register of Historic Places Registration Form—Hacienda Buena Vista. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.)

Notes

External links

*
''Hacienda Buena Vista: Barker's Hydraulic Turbine (1851) - A National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, Ponce, Puerto Rico; 16 July 1994; American Society of Mechanical Engineers & The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.'' 17 pages. Brochure prepared for the Site's Designation Ceremony as National Historic Engineering Landmark.

''American Society of Mechanical Engineers—Barker Turbine at Hacienda Buena Vista: A National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.''
* ttp://community.iexplore.com/planning/journalEntryActivity.asp?JournalID=7966&EntryID=14427&n=Hacienda+Buena+Vista Hacienda Buena Vista at iExplore Now archived a
''WayBack Machine.''30 Sept 2007.
Now archived a

* * {{Authority control Cultural history of Puerto Rico Spanish Colonial architecture in Puerto Rico Historic American Engineering Record in Puerto Rico National Register of Historic Places in Ponce, Puerto Rico 1833 establishments in Puerto Rico Slave cabins and quarters in the United States Farm museums in Puerto Rico