Barrio Playa, also known as Playa de Ponce, Ponce Playa, or La Playa, is one of the thirty-one

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

s that comprise the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

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 ...

. Along with

Bucaná Bucaná is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Together with Canas, Playa, Vayas, and Capitanejo, Bucaná is one of the municipality's five coastal barrios. The name of this barrio is of native Indian origin. It ...

Canas Canas or Cañas may refer to: Places * Canas (Lycia), a town of ancient Lycia, now in Turkey * Amatlán de Cañas, a municipality in Nayarit, Mexico * Cañas Canton, in Guanacaste province, Costa Rica * Cañas, Costa Rica, capital of the Cañas (ca ...

Vayas Vayas is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Playa, Bucana, Canas and Capitanejo, Vayas is also one of Ponce's five coastal barrios. Together with Capitanejo, Vayas is also one of two rural coastal bar ...

, and Capitanejo, Playa is one of the municipality's five coastal barrios. Barrio Playa also incorporates several islands, the largest of which is

Caja de Muertos Caja de Muertos (; also in English: ''Coffin Island'') is an uninhabited island off the southern coast of Puerto Rico, in the municipality of Ponce. The island and its surrounding waters are protected by the Caja de Muertos Nature Reserve, beca ...

. It was founded in 1831.

Location

Playa is an urban barrio located in the southern region of the municipality, within the limits of the city of Ponce, south of the traditional center of the city at

Plaza Las Delicias Plaza Las Delicias is the main plaza in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The square is notable for its fountains and for the various monuments it contains. The historic Parque de Bombas and Ponce Cathedral buildings are located within the plaza ...

, and on the shores of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It is located at 17.9839°N 66.6128°W, and it has an elevation of 10 feet. The

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

, or origin of the name, describes the geographic area the barrio occupies in southern Ponce and facing the

Boundaries

It is bounded on the North by

PR-2 Puerto Rico Highway 2 (PR-2) is a road in Puerto Rico that connects the cities of San Juan and Ponce. At 156 miles (230 km) long, it is Puerto Rico's longest singled-signed highway. The road runs counter-clockwise from San Juan to Ponce. ...

, on the South by the

, on the West by

Río Matilde Río Matilde is a short river in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It forms from the confluence of Rio Pastillo and Rio Canas. Río Matilde is one of the 14 List of rivers of Ponce, rivers in the municipality and, forming at an altitude ...

, and on the East by Río Bucaná.U.S. Geological Survey. Topographic Map of Ponce. Map Styles: Map and Shaded. Trails.com. From: USGS. Topo Map. Projection: NAD83/WGS84.
Retrieved 25 February 2010. In terms of barrio-to-barrio boundaries, Playa is bounded in the North by Canas Urbano and San Anton, in the South by the

, in the West by

, and in the East by

Features and demographics

Unlike most other barrios of Ponce, Playa's landscape is entirely flat. Playa also has the second longest coastline of all five of Ponce's coastal barrios, after

. Playa has of land area and no water area.U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000. Ponce and Its Barrios. (Ponce Municipio, Puerto Rico – County Subdivision and Place. GCT-PH1. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000. Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data)
Retrieved 25 February 2010. In 2000, the population of Playa was 4,761 persons, and it had a density of 1,031 persons per square mile. The communities of Villa del Carmen, Valle Real, Villa Tabaiba, Salistral, El Caribe, Puerto Viejo, Los Meros, Amalia Marin, Lirios del Sur, and Playa proper are found here.Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Office of Territorial Planning. (Municipio Autonomo de Ponce. Oficina de Ordenacion Territorial.) Mapa de Localizacion Limite de Barrios de Ponce.
Retrieved 20 February 2010. In 2010, the population of Playa was 14,077 persons, and it had a density of 3,206.6 persons per square mile. This barrio, or ward, has its own

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

giving it the character of a municipality within a municipality. It has a residential area, a tourist area called La Guancha, and a harbor, '' Puerto de Ponce''. Playa has the second longest coastline of all five coastal barrios in Ponce, after

Infrastructure

Major roads serving Barrio Playa are

PR-52 Puerto Rico Highway 52 (PR-52), a major toll road in Puerto Rico, is also known as ''Autopista Luis A. Ferré''. It was formerly called ''Expreso Las Américas''. It runs from PR-1 in southwest Río Piedras and heads south until it intersects wit ...

PR-12 Puerto Rico Highway 12 (PR-12), also called Avenida Malecón, and Avenida Santiago de los Caballeros, is a 6.4-kilometer, limited-access highway entirely located within the city limits of Ponce, Puerto Rico, and connecting Puerto Rico Highway 1 ...

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 ...

, and

PR-585 Puerto Rico Highway 585 (PR-585) is tertiary As the major means of external communication for the settlement that was to become the city of Ponce, barrio Playa has a history that is as old as the history of the city of Ponce itself, thus dating back to the 16th century. During the 16th century, barrio Playa was called ''Montones''. Subsequently, during the 17th and 18th centuries, significant contraband took place on these shores as well as attempts to attack and ransack the Playa settlement. A lookout post was set up in El Vigia to warn the city of the need of help in the Playa harbor, a port settlement at the time. By the 1830s, la Playa had one of the best roads in Puerto Rico, connecting the shore settlement to the city proper, and it was the center of Ponce's commercial activity. It subsequently also got the first phone lines in Ponce and was also the first one to get railroad service from downtown Ponce.Aida Belen Rivera Ruiz, Certifying Official, and Juan Llanes Santos, Preparer, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 26 February 2008. In ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form – McCabe Memorial Church''. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Section 8. Page 15. Listing Reference Number 80000283. Published on 11 April 2008. Unfortunately, in 1845 a significant fire occurred in La Playa.''Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. By Dr. Eduardo Neumann. 1913. (In Spanish) Reprinted by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (1987)Page 194. The fire destroyed Playa and most of the Ponce vicinity. It significantly damaged the Spanish Customs House in Ponce, this being one of the few building left standing after the fire. The fire burned down the major buildings of the "Marina de Ponce". This moved Puerto Rico governor Conde de Marisol to create a new voluntary fire-fighting organization island-wide. In 1887 the Spanish government built a lighthouse at

Caja de Muertos Light Caja de Muertos Light, (''Faro de la Isla de Caja de Muertos'') is an 1887 lighthouse in Ponce, Puerto Rico, that is unique amongst all other lighthouses in Puerto Rico for its unusual Cross of Lorraine, double-arm, T-type shape structure. The ...

on an island by the same name just off the coast of barrio Playa. This was followed by the building of Cayo Cardona lighthouse in 1889, on a small island at the entrance of the Ponce harbor. Both of these islands are part of barrio Playa. By 1913, Playa was "a dynamic neighborhood with a self-substained urban development with a population of 5,169 distributed through a residential area dominated by wooden houses, sugar cane farms, churches, schools, hospitals, a cemetery and local indiustries that promoted the formation of a strong artisan and industrial workers class." Playa is considered Puerto Rico's first planned

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

an area. In 1929, La Playa was the place where Dr.

Manuel de la Pila Iglesias Manuel de la Pila Iglesias (November 16, 1884 – October 5, 1950) was a Puerto Rican physician practicing in Ponce, Puerto Rico, who specialized in a half-dozen medical specialities. He founded a medical clinic in Ponce that grew into a l ...

worked for the U.S. federal government with such distinction as to earn him the title "physician of physicians."''El Dr. Manuel de la Pila Iglesias: Ilustre médico de Ponce y Puerto Rico.''
Norman Maldonado, MD. ''GALENUS: Revista para los Medicos de Puerto Rico.'' Volume 9. Year 2. Number 2. (March–April 2009) Guaynabo, Puerto Rico: MW World PR Corp. Accessed 28 April 2018. Today, Playa is a mostly low-income barrio of Ponce, and thus this is where

Isolina Ferré ''Sor'' Isolina Ferré Aguayo (5 September 1914 – 3 August 2000) was a Puerto Rican Roman Catholic religious sister. Known as the "Mother Teresa of Puerto Rico", she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her humanitari ...

founded her "Centro de Orientacion de la Playa" hospital and school that would earn her the U.S.

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

in 1999. The Ponce Playa Diagnostic and Treatment Center was also founded in barrio Playa de Ponce.

Landmarks

Research Bldg at Ponce School of Medicine in Barrio Playa in Ponce, PR (DSC00769)

Playa is home to a mix of Ponce and Puerto Rico landmarks:

Puerto Rico Iron Works Puerto Rico Iron Works (founded as ''Porto Rico Iron Works'') was a heavy industry iron foundry located in barrio La Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1918. The foundry "was Puerto Rico's most prolific steel bridge fabr ...

foundry,

Plaza del Caribe Plaza del Caribe is an enclosed shopping mall located in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is owned by Empresas Fonalledas, and is the largest mall in southern Puerto Rico. The mall is located at the intersection of Puerto Rico Highway 2 and Highway 12. ...

mall,

Club Náutico de Ponce The Club Náutico de Ponce (''Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club'') is a yacht club in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The club is located contiguously on Isla de Gatas, near the La Guancha recreational and cultural area, and next to the Port of Ponce. The co ...

yacht club,

La Guancha boardwalk Paseo Tablado La Guancha (English: ''La Guancha Boardwalk'') is a boardwalk in the La Guancha sector of the Playa barrio in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, facing the Caribbean Sea. It was built under the mayoral administration of Rafael Cord ...

, and

natural reserve are all located in Barrio Playa. The historic

Cardona Island Light Cardona Island Light (also known as Faro del Puerto de Ponce or Cayo Cardona Light) is the only 6th order lighthouse in Puerto Rico with a cylindrical attached tower. The light is located on Cardona Island, a small island on the west side of th ...

house, United States Custom House and

McCabe Memorial Church McCabe Memorial Church, also known as Iglesia Metodista Unida de la Playa de Ponce, is a historic church building in Barrio Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It dates from 1908, and was designed by Antonin Nechodoma. It was listed on the U.S. Natio ...

, all

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

listed landmarks, are also located in Barrio Playa. Playa also has the most important Caribbean seaport in Puerto Rico, called Port of the Americas.

Notable natives and residents

People from La Playa are called "playeros". *

Rafael Cordero Santiago Rafael Cordero Santiago (24 October 1942 – 17 January 2004), better known as "Churumba", was the Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1989 to 2004. Many considered him as a synonym of Ponce, being baptized as "El León Mayor ...

, mayor of Ponce (1988–2004) * Javier Culson, Olympic medal winner

track-and-field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping event ...

athlete''Saluda a lo lejos una abuela orgullosa.''
Jason Rodriguez Grafal. (Title in printed version: ''Desde La Playa de Ponce: Saluda en la Distancia una Abuela Orgullosa.'') La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1 August 2012. Year 30. Number 1496. Page 6. Retrieved 1 August 2012. *

Carmen Nydia Velázquez Carmen Nydia Velázquez (born 2 October 1947) is a Puerto Rican comedian,Jaime L. Drew, educator, writer, civil servant and engineer * José "Chegüi" Torres, professional boxer *

Carmen Nydia Velázquez Carmen Nydia Velázquez (born 2 October 1947) is a Puerto Rican comedian,''Feliz Carmen Nydia Velázquez con el reconocimiento en su Playa de Ponce.''
Voces del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 15 January 2020. Accessed 16 January 2020.

Gallery

Restaurante Bahias, Bo. Playa, Calle Alfonso XII final, frente al Mar Caribe, Ponce, PR, mirando al noroeste (DSC01381).jpg, Sea food restaurant facing the Caribbean Sea on Calle Alfonso XII Dockworkers' union building in Ponce, Puerto Rico.jpg, Dockworkers' union building in Playa Club Nautico de Ponce Docking Area 2 Restaurant in Ponce, PR (IMG 3724).jpg, Seafood restaurant at

Club Nautico de Ponce Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

Club Nautico de Ponce Docking Area Restaurant in Ponce, PR (IMG 3719).jpg, International food restaurant at

Interior Restaurante Cafe Lucero, C. Salmon y C. Ramon R. Velez, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al este (DSC01633).jpg, Interior of International food Cafe Lucero restaurant Restaurante Cafe Lucero, C. Salmon y C. Ramon R. Velez, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al noroeste (DSC01634).jpg, International food restaurant Cafe Lucero on Calle Salmon and Calle Ramon R. Velez Restaurante De Jesus, Ave. Hostos, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al sureste (DSC01829).jpg, Puerto Rican and sea food restaurant on Avenida Hostos Restaurante El Ancla, Av. Hostos Final, frente al Mar Caribe, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al sur-suroeste (DSC01388C).jpg, Sea-front Puerto Rican and sea food restaurant at historic train depot on Avenida Hostos Final Restaurante Macaroni Grill, Mall Plaza del Caribe, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al este-sureste (DSC01394).jpg, Italian restaurant on the campus of

mall Restaurante P.F. Chang's, Mall Plaza del Caribe, Bo. Playa, Ponce, PR, mirando al este-noreste (DSC01396).jpg, Chinese restaurant on the campus of

mall

References

External links

* {{Ponce, Puerto Rico Populated coastal places in Puerto Rico Barrio Playa 1831 establishments in Puerto Rico