Trivia No. 3: Casa Manila and the Soltero

DID YOU KNOW THAT the first storyline for Casa Manila featured a fictional soltero?

By Rancho Arcilla
21 April 2020

The Casa Manila is a post-war recreation of a three-story house from Jaboneros St., San Nicolas. Be that as it may, it did not stop its founders, Ramon Faustmann, David Baradas, Martin Tinio, and Conrado Escudero from creating a fictional story line for the otherwise newly built structure. 

Martin Imperial Tinio, the tale’s author, fancifully writes that the Casa Manila was built in the early 1800s. It was damaged by the 1863 and 1880 earthquakes, but was retrofitted and occupied by a soltero who loved to entertain. Casa Manila was furnished with the bachelor’s heirlooms and with Chinese and European imports that he loved, including a fake fireplace and a neo-gothic altar that came from Felix Resureccion Hidalgo. There was no air conditioning during that time, so the soltero cooled his dinner guests with punkahs swung by a muchacho stationed at one corner. He also had the extreme luxury–ice imported all the way from Walden Pond in Massachusetts–and kept in the kitchen’s ice box. However, the soltero hadn’t gotten around to arranging for running water and plumbing so he had an old-fashioned two-seater flushless toilet, and bathed outdoors at the azotea, using rainwater hauled up from a cistern. 

Reference: Laya, Jaime (2017). The Noble and Ever Loyal City. In Panlilio, Erlinda (Ed), The Manila We Know (pp. 23-24). Anvil Publishing, Inc. 

About the Author: Rancho Arcilla

John Paul Escandor Arcilla, known professionally as Rancho Arcilla, is the author of the Intramuros Register of Styles (2021). He served as Chairperson of the Intramuros Technical Committee on Architectural Standards (TCAS) from June 2022 to May 2024. As TCAS Chairperson, Arcilla oversaw the review of all development, including new constructions, in the Walled City.

Arcilla was also the first Archivist of the Intramuros Administration. With mandate from Atty. Guiller Asido, Administrator of Intramuros from 2017 to 2022, Arcilla established the Administration’s Archives and Central Records Section, serving as its first Section Head from July 2019 to June 2024.

He has an MA in Philippine Studies from UP Diliman and a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Santo Tomas. Arcilla specializes on colonial architecture. In 2021, Arcilla was instrumental in the development of the Revised 2021 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Presidential Decree No. 1616, the main framework and legal instrument in the management of Intramuros District. The architectural provisions of the IRR and the Intramuros Register of Styles (2021) is based on his MA thesis Walls within Walls: The Architecture of Intramuros (2021).