From the early 1900’s to the 1960s, Escolta was the country’s premier shopping mecca, with high-end stores such as La Estrella del Norte and Puerta del Sol, which marked the east and west entrances of Escolta.  It is also home to H.E. Heacocks and Oceanic (for fine household items);  Berg’s (for fashionable clothes);  Hamilton Brown and Walk-Over Shoe Store (for quality leather shoes); 2 high-class cinema theaters (Capitol and Lyric) which brought the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to Manila; restaurants (Henry’s Donuts, Max’s Fried Chicken, Dencia’s Pansit Malabon, Savory Restaurant, etc.); and Botica Boie (for mixed potent medicines).  Founded in 1830, the latter also served the best ice cream sodas, brewed coffee and clubhouse sandwiches in its glass-in mezzanine overlooking the street.  With the emergence of commercial and business districts of Makati City and Quezon City, the prestige of Escolta gradually faded.

Needing to buy some lighting fixtures along nearby Soler St., I decided to include a visit to Escolta  in my itinerary.  From Gil Puyat Ave., I took the LRT and dropped off at Carriedo Station.  The first notable piece of architecture I encountered was the Neo-Classical-style Don Roman R. Santos Building, fronting Plaza Lacson (formerly Plaza Goiti).  When the Japanese bombed the city during World War II, only 3 of its 5 floors were finished.  Luckily, it survived and the building was finished in 1957.  The building once housed the headquarters of Monte de Piedad and Prudential Bank and, later, a shopping mall (South Super Mart).  When the mall closed, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) took over the building. Its entrance has Ionic columns with a triangular pediment, within which is a big clock flanked by bas-relief sculptures.

Don Roman R. Santos Building

Both ends of Escolta open into impressive open spaces  (Plaza Sta. Cruz and Plaza Moraga).  Though no longer the premier shopping district it used to be, strolling along Escolta is still a rewarding experience as one could still find traces of its glorious past.  Upon crossing the little Visita Bridge spanning Estero de la Reina, at the Sta. Cruz entrance of Escolta, I was attracted by 2 impressive, eye-catching (though marred by entangled electrical cables) buildings facing each other – the fancy, Art Deco-style First United Building and the elegant Beaux Arts-style Regina Building.

The pink and white First United Building, formerly the Perez-Samanillo Building, is one of the few surviving examples of the Art Deco architectural style in Manila. Built in 1928 by Andres Luna de San Pedro (Juan Luna’s son), it’s awesome façade has a large amount of architectural and decorative elements.  Its central bay rises towards a crowning block rendered with a bas-relief of the Creation. Once described as Manila’s foremost business address, it prides itself with providing maximized space, abundant lighting and ventilation to its tenants.

Check out “First United Building“

The graceful, white Neo-Classical-style Regina Building, built in 1934, its design (with traces of Renaissance Revival) also attributed to Andres Luna de San Pedro, was originally designed as a 3-storey commercial building. A fourth floor was added by Arch. Fernando H. Ocampo (founder of the UST College of Architecture and designer of the UST Central Seminary and the 8th Manila Cathedral) when the de Leon family bought the building from the Roxases. The staff of the late Sen. Vicente Madrigal (grandfather of Sen. Jamby Madrigal) rented a suite in this building.  Also on the same floor, across the hall, was the office of Madrigal Shipping, then the world’s largest tramp steamship company.

Further out was the Burke Building, with its simple balance lines.  Built in 1919, it was named after the cardiologist William J. Burke who introduced and installed the first electrocardiograph in the country.  Also a philanthropist, he donated the land for the street (Calle David, renamed W. Burke St. in 1990).  The first Otis elevator in the Philippines was installed in this building.

The charming, Beaux Arts-style Natividad Building, one of the most beautiful landmarks in the area, is one of the oldest buildings along Escolta.  It was burned during the 1945 Battle of Manila (leaving only its exterior shell) and was later restored.  In the 1950s, this building housed the office of the Insurance Commission.  Its alluring, ivory and white-colored facade, evocative of a French café in a Parisian neighborhood, has four levels alternately decorated with arched and square windows with cornices with tooth-like dentils underneath it.

Calvo Building

The stunning, Beaux Arts-style Calvo Building, built in 1938, was also designed by Arch. Fernando Ocampo.   This 4-storey building, with its  richly-decorated facade, once housed the Philippine Bank of Commerce, the popular MV Villar Records Store and the original radio station of Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart’s Channel 7. On its roof deck was Luisa, a popular soda fountain. Today, Mercury Drug and Tropical Hut flank the entrance to the building, with Wah Yuen Hot Pot and Seafood Restaurant in its Calle Soda side. Its mezzanine  is home to the little-known Escolta Museum.

Check out “Escolta Museum” and “Calvo Building“

Across the street from the Calvo Building is the decaying and dilapidated shell of the majestic, Mesopotanian-inspired Art Deco-style Capitol Theater. Built in the 1935, this theater, designed by National Artist Arch. Juan Nakpil, had a seating capacity of 800 and an unusual double balcony.  Its lobby once mounted a beautiful wall mural by the late Filipino modernist and National Artist Victorio C. Edades. Now abandoned, it ceased operations in the late 1980s.

On the face of its western tower were bas-reliefs, evocative of Art Deco lines and curves, showing Filipinas (one holding a mask and another holding a lyre) in traje de mestiza frame and set in a tropical landscape, attributed to the Italian atelier of Francesco Ricardo Monti. The bigger, 1600-pax Lyric Theater, another Art Deco masterpiece designed by Modernist Arch. Pablo S. Antonio, was demolished in the early 1980s.

Burke Building: 321 W. Burke St., cor, Escolta St., Binondo, Manila

Calvo Building: 266 Escolta St. cor. Calle Soda, Binondo, Manila.  Tel: (632) 241-4762.

First United Building: 413 Escolta cor. David St., Binondo, Manila.

Natividad Building: Escolta cor. Tomas Pinpin St., Binondo Manila

Regina Building: W. Burke St., cor, Escolta St., Binondo, Manila

Roman S. Santos Building: Escolta cor. Yuchengco St., Binondo, Manila

Gota de Leche (Spanish for “drop of milk”), the first and oldest nonsectarian charitable organization in the country, was founded in 1905 by the Asociacion Feminista Filipina, a women’s movement in the Philippines. At that time, women didn’t have equal rights and were dependent on their husbands.  This group, devoted to mother-and-child health, included educated women such as Concepcion Felix (the first Filipina to earn a college degree), Librada Avelino (founder of Centro Escolar University), Justice Natividad Almeda Lopez (the first Filipina to practice law  and president of Gota de Leche for more than 40 years) and Filomena Francisco (the first woman pharmacist).

Part of a worldwide movement to help children whose mothers couldn’t breastfeed, Gota de Leche (also known by its institutionalized name La Proteccion de la Infancia, Inc. or LPI) established, among many things, a milk station for infants since the number of cases of beriberi, malnutrition, and child mortality was alarmingly high. Its impressive operation involved cow owners who donated extra milk (bottled and delivered to Gota de Leche in calesas).  San Miguel provided the ice to prevent spoilage and electricity and water was free. Famous Dr. Fernando Calderon, a leading Filipino obstetrician during the American colonial period and the first director of the Philippine General Hospital, also lent his time to the institution.

During its heyday, Gota de Leche fed 500 to 1,000 babies per week. Today, during feeding sessions held every Thursday (with a volunteer pediatrician on hand), its feeding program provides 2 kgs. of powdered milk per person  and every month, the institution spends a total of PhP60,000 on ten 25-kg. sacks of milk. Once the babies are no longer malnourished, a 4-man staff monitors the height and weight of children who “graduate” from the feeding program.

The iconic, 2-storey building which housed this movement (which moved here from its original home along Evangelista St. in Quiapo) was designed by architects Arcadio Arellano and his younger U.S.-educated brother Juan Arellano (he would later designed the Manila Central Post Office Building and the Metropolitan Theater).  The building, patterned after the Osepedale Degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents), a still-existing orphanage designed by renowned Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi from 1419 to 1427 in Florence (Italy), was adapted for the tropics.

Erected on a parcel of land donated by bachelor industrialist and philanthropist Teodoro R. Yangco, it was completed in 1917 and survived World War II, earthquakes, fires and floods.  To the right of the building’s colonnaded, semicircular arched main entrance is a 5-bay loggia (Brunelleschi’s building had 9 bays) with round, monolithic columns with Classical capitals supporting a semicircular arch.  Above each column are circular tondi (roundels) featuring reliefs of infants in swaddling clothes (symbolizing the function of the building) set in spandrels (the space between arches).

In 2002, the dilapidated building was restored to its original 1917 appearance by a team led by Arch. Augusto Villalon (his grandfather Dr. Jose Fabella was once Gota de Leche president), a member of the HCS Board of Trustees and the project’s lead conservation architect and project coordinator. The rental building, an unsympathetic addition attached to it in the recent past, was removed, providing vehicular access and clear sight lines from the street.  The original landscaping was also restored by landscape architect Ms. Ani Katrina de Leon.  In repairing the dilapidated building, traditional crafts and skills were undertaken within a clear and low-intervention conservation framework.

The following year, this restoration project was awarded an honorable mention by  Dr. Richard Engelhardt, regional adviser for culture in the Asia-Pacific, during the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation, thus putting the Philippines’ heritage efforts in the world map and the building in the international heritage roster. A part of the building’s space is leased to a woman’s rights non-government organization and its main facilities and grounds are rented out for private functions.

Gota de Leche: 859 Sergio H. Loyola St. (formerly Lepanto St.), Sampaloc, Manila. Tel: (632) 309-4562.

Heritage Conservation Society: G/F, Museo Pambata Bldg., Roxas Blvd., Ermita, Manila. Tel: (632) 353-4494.  Fax: (632) 522-2497.  Website:  www.heritage.org.ph.