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 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 ...

. It was inaugurated in 1863 by Ponce Mayor Don Luis de Quixano. Designed by famed engineer Timoteo Luberza, it occupies a city block in the

Ponce Historic Zone The Ponce Historic Zone (''La Zona Histórica de Ponce'') is a historic district in downtown Ponce, Puerto Rico, consisting of buildings and structures with architecture that date to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The zone go ...

at the grid formed by Calle Atocha, Estrella, Leon, and Castillo streets.MundoBoricua
List of Ponce Attractions by the Director. Retrieved 15 July 2010. It has room for 65 kiosks. It was originally called Plaza del Capá.

History

The building was erected from plans by Timoteo Luberza in 1863, who modeled it after Les Halles, the market of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in France. At the time it was built, it was the largest and most modern marketplace in Puerto Rico. It has undergone four major additions and/or remodelings since then: in 1903, 1941, 1980–89, and 2006.

1903 Enlargement

In 1903 it was enlarged according to the Neoclassical design of architect Manuel V. Domenech.Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, et al., ''Brevario sobre la historia de Ponce y sus principales lugares de interes.'' 1991. Museo de la Historia de Ponce. Secretaria de Arte y Cultura. Government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. p. 163. A meat storage was also added. Even by the early 1900s, Plaza del Mercado had enjoyed many years of heavy use and, by 1926, Plaza del Mercado Isabel II was so overcrowded that the city of Ponce built a second plaza,

Mercado de las Carnes Mercado de las Carnes ( en, Meat Market), also known as La Plaza de los Perros ( en, Dogs' Plaza), but formally, ''Plaza Juan Ponce de León'' (Juan Ponce de León Plaza), was the first building in Puerto Rico to mix social and architectural el ...

("Meat Market"), to relieve the overcrowding at Plaza del Mercado.Joaquin Acevedo Cruz, State Architect, and Felix Julian del Campo, State Historian. (PR SHPO). Certified by Mariano G. Coronas Castro, State Historic Preservation Officer, State Historic Preservation Office, San Juan, PR. March 1986. In ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form – Mercado de las Carnes''. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 86003199. 16 November 1986.

1941 Enlargement

In 1941, it was again enlarged per plans by Ponce-born architect

Pedro Mendez Mercado Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

. During the 1941 remodeling, the original structure, which was not

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

, was enhanced with an art deco facade.

The Juan Bigas building

Starting in 1981, and for the next 26 years, Plaza del Mercado shopkeepers operated out of a new building at the grid formed by Calle Guadalupe, Salud, Estrella and Mayor streets, two blocks east of the historic Plaza del Mercado Isabel II. The new building, called the Plaza del Mercado Juan Bigas building, was inaugurated in 1981 to replace the aging, but historic, Plaza del Mercado Isabel II building. It cost $10 million to build. It is the building with the largest footprint in Ponce. Inside of it are some of the ruins of the old Teatro Apolo. (Teatro Apolo was located at the corner of Calle Salud and Calle Guadalupe.) On 28 June 2010, Governor

Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013. Fortuño served as the first secretary of econom ...

signed the Senate Resolution Number 191, transferring ownership of the Plaza del Mercado de Ponce Juan Bigas building to the Ponce Municipal Government. The Juan Bigas building had sat unused since the 1990s when the shopkeepers moved back to the remodeled Isabel II building. On 7 April 2011, the municipal government announced it would invest $10 million to remodel the Juan Bigas building and turn it into a municipal services center, dubbed " Ponce Servicios", hosting various municipal services offices. The remodeling of the old Plaza del Mercado Juan Bigas building to be used for municipal government services will occur at a cost of $6.828 million. A 27 July 2011, news report stated work on the Bigas building would commence in October 2011 at an expected cost of $15 million. A 26 June 2013 news report indicated that renovations had been completed and the first two floor of the facility would reopen by the end of July 2013. The agencies due to occupy the structure are: the Oficina de Permisos (Office of Permits), Ordenación Territorial (Office of Territorial Planning), Vivienda Municipal (Office of Municipal Housing), the Archivo Histórico de Ponce, Office of the Federal Ryan White Program and the Banco Municipal (Municipal Bank). The name of the facility is Ponce Servicios. The facility reopened as "Ponce Servicios" in August 2013.

1980-1989 Remodeling

In 1980, the building was once more remodeled. The 1980 remodeling lasted 9 years - until 1989. Its Art Deco style was further enhanced, after the design of architect Pedro Méndez Mercado. At this point the structure was turned from a fruits-and-vegetables market plaza into a handcrafts shopping plaza. Air conditioning was added to Plaza del Mercado Isabel II in 1984 when the Pitusa supermarket moved in.''Tras multimillonaria renovación: Afloran fallas en la Plaza de Mercado.''
Carmen Cila Rodríguez. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. ca. February 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2011.

1992 Remodeling

In 1992 Plaza del Mercado Isabell II was turned into a multi-use building that included parking, businesses, and private office space. This 1992 reconstruction was part of the ''

Ponce en Marcha 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 ...

'' project. It was designed by architect Miguel A. Carlos and built by Vissepo Construction. In 1993 the design and building project received the Award for Building Excellence of the Puerto Rico Association of General Contractors and the Association of Pre-mixed Concrete Manufacturers.

2006 Restoration to today

The building was restored once more in 2006 at a cost of $4 million. In August 2007, the Juan Bigas Building shopkeepers moved back to the historic Plaza del Mercado Isabel II building to occupy it once more as a fruit-and-vegetables market place.

Uniqueness

"The phenomenon of this building, unique in Puerto Rico, is that despite its enlargements, its interior still preserves the original structure. Through its remodelings, its facade has shown several architectural styles, including neoclassical and art deco."

Today

Today Plaza de Mercado is also used as a venue for a variety of festivals and other similar gatherings. However, in October 2010, structural and air conditioning problems were found with the newly rebuilt structure.''Tras multimillonaria renovación: Afloran fallas en la Plaza de Mercado.''
Carmen Cila Rodríguez. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. ca. February 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2011.

References

External links

''Plaza del Mercado Isabel II: Pedro Mendez Mercado, 1941.'' David R. Soto Padín. PRADS. 2018. Accessed 14 March 2018.

Eastern facade of Plaza del Mercado de Ponce
Looking north, circa 1900. Accessed 5 January 2011.
Plaza de Mercado in 1910
Accessed 12 July 2020.
Eastern facade of Plaza del Mercado de Ponce
Looking north, circa 1940s. Accessed 24 July 2013.
Eastern facade of Plaza del Mercado de Ponce
Looking north, circa 1957. Accessed 24 July 2013.

* ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/fredandrebecca/8583688533/in/photostream/ Photo of the SE corner of Plaza de Mercado (in the foreground) in the 1960s, looking WSW {{DEFAULTSORT:Plaza del Mercado de Ponce Commercial buildings completed in 1863 Tourist attractions in Ponce, Puerto Rico Historic districts in Puerto Rico Buildings and structures in Ponce, Puerto Rico Neoclassical architecture in Puerto Rico Art Deco architecture in Puerto Rico 1863 in Puerto Rico 1863 establishments in Puerto Rico