Architecture

Second Period (1866-1899):

Second Period (1866-1899): Spans from the Restoration of the Republic to the fall of Ulysses Heureaux.

Rich and definite architectural language, beautiful stylistic elements. The urban facade of Santo Domingo, which became demographically saturated during this period, was transformed during these 33 years due to economic improvement in the country.

Features:

• In Santo Domingo, architectural changes were made at a facade level. Hispanic architectural foundations were maintained.
  
  
• A checkerboard layout was maintained in the city, a grid that extended beyond the walls of what would subsequently become the Ciudad Nueva or New City.
  
  
• Densification of floors.
  
  
• 2,654 dwellings built in the year 1893 in Santo Domingo.
  
  
• Intensification commercial use of space. Commerce emerged primarily in two large areas:
  

• · The area of Navarijo (El Conde and La Nouel Streets from Sánchez Street) and northeast of Santa Bárbara. This area was characterized by small business for the poorer classes, emphasizing pharmacies, hardware, meat markets, bakeries, blacksmiths, and metalworkers.
  
• The central zone (El Conde St. from Sánchez St. to Isabel la Católica St., and from there until the Plaza del Mercado). This area housed better quality stores, hotels and business, among them the two large stores that had already distributed imported merchandise for years.
  
• Additionally, other markets distributed throughout the city represented points of intense commercial activity and trade. Examples included: The Placita (Plaza de las Verduras), the Old Market or Mercado Viejo (whose plaza was remodeled during this time), the Slaughterhouse (in the Southwestern corner of the city), the Mercadito de la Ceiba (a smaller market to the Northwest, near the Port) and the New Market or
  
• Mercado Nuevo (established what used to be the city’s magazine or polvorín on November 25, 1888).

• The pattern of lots subdivided into irregular plots, some adjacent to the others, which reduced lot size and at the same time increased the number of facades on each block. This reduction and multiplication of lots (which occurred mostly in working-class neighborhoods) was spontaneous and disorganized, and also resulted in a decrease in the size of city blocks.
  
• Conversion of second levels for individual use, resulting in an emergence of exterior stairways.
  
• The real estate industry is born in the country.
  
• Modernization of city services:

• Expansion of the train system.
  
• Installation of telegraphic cables and telephones.
  
• Installation of the electric grid. The first electric lights in the Dominican Republic were lit in the Parque Colón on February 27, 1896. The electric plant that generated them was located out of the wall, to the Northeast (el Timbeque).
  
• Re-organization of the postal system.
  
• Establishment of the Municipal Laboratory, which was dedicated to serve as backup to the Leprocomio by doing water analysis and vaccinations, monitoring the slaughterhouse, and managing food safety.
  
• Establishment of the Military Hospital in 1889, next to the Fortress. Its services were offered to the general public.
  
• Enlargement of the old Municipal Cemetery or Cementerio de la Sabana, which was also gated with iron gates brought from the United States.

• Emphasis on symmetry and rhythm in facade detail.
  
• Raised balconies become increasingly common and more stylized, especially in the detail of their ledges.
  
• Construction in tapia walling continues to be common in Santo Domingo.
  
• Introduction and proliferation of reinforced concrete, some handmade elements for use in construction, and prefabricated structures.
  
• Importation of wood, iron, shale and clay tiles, bricks, asbestos, and cement.
  
• Physical conditions of the streets in terms of their width and length remain unchanged.
  
• Brick floors (made of smaller and thicker bricks than were previously used) and wood were common.
  
• Stylistic trends of the day:

• Modified Colonial: Hispanic building plans outfitted with accessories from the United States (primarily moldings for facades).
  
• Neocolonial Republican: Buildings built after the establishment of the Republic, with reduced floor plans and Colonial facades, characterized by elements that arise during the Second Period.

• Doors and windows crowned with rectangular or pyramidal cornices.
  
• Openings (doors and windows) sometimes framed in arched, rectangular, or mixed high-relief pastiche.
  
• Higher ledges with more relief in the molding. Crowning based on differently designed friezes.
  
• Some French neoclassical ornamentation seen (primarily in high relief stuccowork), though this is not widely used.

• Victorian: Following the model of traditional English architecture. This style was introduced in the Dominican Republic during the 1870’s. The trend developed mostly in Puerto Plata, which emerged as the primary international trade port during the Second Period.

• Buildings built mainly in wood and brick (due to the cost of materials).
  
• Polyhedral living rooms (three-sided to five-sided) also served as openings to the outdoors.
  
• Proliferation of extensions, cornices, fans, and small columns on building facades.
  
• Openwork of different styles seen on the festoons of eaves, tops of balconies, and lateral facades.
  
• Elegantly done, rustic woodwork.
  
• Mass-produced ironwork pieces, imported from abroad and assembled in the Dominican Republic.
  
• Variants of “gingerbread” style.
  
• American, English, and French style doors and windows.
  
• Victorian-style balconies.

Vernacular: Enriched by Victorian and “gingerbread” influences.

• Carved (balusters and brackets) or drilled (fans, festoons, and partitions) exterior woodwork.
  
• Walls and ceilings lined with highly worked smaller boards.
  
• Wooden French doors and blinds.
  
• Geometrically designed fans made of wood placed above doors.
  
• Introduction of zinc siding, first in ceilings and later in refurbished walls.
  
• Yagua and small boards were often used for walling.

• Santo Domingo outgrew its walls, and openings in them had to be made. The first drillings were undertaken in 1883, and between 1888 and 1900 portions of the wall had been removed in El Conde, La Misericordia, and San Diego. Nevertheless, the wall retained a great psychological importance in terms of security and providing a clear distinction between urban and rural space.

• Public Works:

• Constriction of an iron bridge, laid with planks of wood, over the Ozama River (today the site of Ramón Matías Mella Bridge). The iron bridge had to be reconstructed twice due to natural disasters.
  
• Construction of a dock reinforced with iron rods on the Ozama River. This dock was set against Customs Office and extended south towards the entrance to San Diego. It was built in the second half of the 1870’s, and was expanded in 1890.