BarrioPlaya, also known asPlaya de Ponce,Ponce Playa, orLa Playa, is one of the thirty-onebarrios that comprise themunicipality ofPonce, Puerto Rico. Along withBucaná,Canas,Vayas, andCapitanejo, Playa is one of the municipality's five coastal barrios. Barrio Playa also incorporates several islands, the largest of which isCaja de Muertos.[3] It was founded in 1831.[4]
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 atPlaza Las Delicias, and on the shores of theCaribbean Sea. It is located at 17.9839°N 66.6128°W, and it has an elevation of 10 feet.[5] Thetoponymy, or origin of the name, describes the geographic area the barrio occupies in southern Ponce and facing theCaribbean Sea.[6]
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, afterCanas. Playa has 4.6 square miles (12 km2) of land area and no water area.[10]
In 2000, the population of Playa was 4,761 persons, and it had a density of 1,031 persons per square mile.[10] 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.[8][11]
In 2010, the population of Playa was 14,077 persons, and it had a density of 3,206.6 persons per square mile.[12]
This barrio, or ward, has its ownplaza giving it the character of a municipality within a municipality. It has a residential area, a tourist area calledLa Guancha, and a harbor,Puerto de Ponce.
Playa has the second longest coastline of all five coastal barrios in Ponce, afterCanas.[13]
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 calledMontones.[21] 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 inEl 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.[22]
Unfortunately, in 1845 a significant fire occurred in La Playa.[23] The fire destroyed Playa and most of the Ponce vicinity. It significantly damaged theSpanish Customs House in Ponce, this being one of the few building left standing after the fire.[24] The fire burned down the major buildings of the "Marina de Ponce".[23] This moved Puerto Rico governor Conde de Marisol to create a new voluntary fire-fighting organization island-wide.[citation needed]
In 1887 the Spanish government built a lighthouse atCaja de Muertos Light on an island by the same name just off the coast of barrio Playa.[25] This was followed by the building ofCayo Cardona lighthouse in 1889, on a small island at the entrance of the Ponce harbor.[26] Both of these islands are part of barrio Playa.
By 1913, Playa was "a dynamic neighborhood with a self-sustained 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."[22] Playa is considered Puerto Rico's first plannedsuburban area.[27]
In 1929, La Playa was the place where Dr.Manuel de la Pila Iglesias worked for the U.S. federal government with such distinction as to earn him the title "physician of physicians."[28]
Today, Playa is a mostly low-income barrio of Ponce, and thus this is whereIsolina Ferré founded her "Centro de Orientacion de la Playa" hospital and school that would earn her the U.S.Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. The Ponce Playa Diagnostic and Treatment Center was also founded in barrio Playa de Ponce.[citation needed]
^Barrios de Ponce.Archived 30 September 2015 at theWayback Machine Antepasados Esclavos.(From: Pedro Tomás de Córdoba. Memorias geográficas, históricas, económicas y estadísticas de la Isla de Puerto Rico.) Retrieved 28 November 2014.
^Eli D. Oquendo-Rodriguez. Pablo L. Crespo-Vargas, editor.A Orillas del Mar Caribe: Boceto historico de la Playa de Ponce - Desde sus primeros habitantes hasta principios del siglo XX. First edition. June, 2017. Editorial Akelarre. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones del Sur Oeste de Puerto Rico (CEISCO). Lajas, Puerto Rico. Page 21.ISBN978-1547284931
^abAida Belen Rivera Ruiz, Certifying Official, and Juan Llanes Santos, Preparer, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 26 February 2008. InNational 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.
^abVerdadera 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.
^James C. Massey, Exec. Vice Pres., and Shirley Maxwell, Associate, National Preservation Institute (National Building Museum) Washington, D.C. and the Federal Historic Preservation Office, U.S. Department of the Treasury. (Washington, D.C.) 7 January 1988. InNational Register of Historic Places Registration Form – U.S. Custom House, Ponce. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Section 8, Page 3. Listing Reference Number 88000073. 10 February 1988.
^National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form – Isla Caja de Muertos Light. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 2. Listing Reference Number 81000690. 22 October 1981.
^National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form – Cayo Cardona Light. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 2. Listing Reference Number 81000691. 22 October 1981.
^Diana Lopez Sotomayor. Edificio Municipal de la Playa de Ponce. National Register of Historic Places. Registration Form. Number 13000639. 3 July 2013. p.7.
^Act Number 256. H. B. 2988; Act No. 256, Approved 13 August 2008. An Act: To direct the Public Structure and Highway Naming Commission of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to name Road PR-9 (Beltway) of Ponce after Rafael (Churumba) Cordero-Santiago. Legislature of Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
^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.
^Desfilan en masa para honrar a Ponce . Sandra Torres Guzmán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 31. Issue 1556. 25 September 2013. Page 24. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
^Luis Fortuño Janeiro. "Album Historico de Ponce (1692–1963)". Page 246. (Imprenta Fortuño. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1963.)
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