The Museo de la Historia de Ponce (Museum of the History of Ponce) is a local history museum located in the historic Casa Salazar-Candal in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The museum depicts the city's ecology, economy, architecture, government, and elements of daily life. It seeks to promote the research, conservation, and dissemination of the historic heritage of Ponce and Puerto Rico.^[6]

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Museo de la Historia de Ponce

Museo de la Historia de Ponce on Calle Isabel and Calle Mayor Cantera
Museo de la Historia de Ponce Location within Puerto Rico
Established	12 December 1992[1]
Location	Calle Isabel #53, SE corner of Calle Isabel & Calle Mayor, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Coordinates	18°00′45″N 66°36′42″W
Type	History museum
Visitors	12,464 (2000)[2]
Director	Jorge Alberto Figueroa Irizarry[3][4]
Curator	Ms. Maruja Candal Salazar Neysa Rodriguez Deynes[5]
Owner	Autonomous Municipality of Ponce
Website	Website

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Inaugurated on 12 December 1992,^[7] it was the first museum in Puerto Rico established to cover the history of the people of a town or city.^[8] It traces the city's history from the Taino Indians to today. The museum was inaugurated under the administration of Mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago, as part of the tricentennial celebration of the founding of the city.^[9]

It is located in the historic district of the city, a short two-block walk from the central Plaza Las Delicias town square, at the southeast corner of Isabel and Mayor Cantera streets. The museum proper is housed in the historic Casa Salazar-Candal but also includes the neighboring Rosali-Zapater house, which houses administratives offices of the museum, in addition to the empty lot that once held the residence of the Schuck Gelpí family.^[10] In 2012, plans were announced to expand the museum into the Casa Rosita Serrallés, an adjacent property.^[11] In 2014, Casa Rosita Serralles (Calle Salud street #67) joined Museo de la Historia de Ponce and opened as "Museo de la Recordacion Barrio Mameyes" (Barrio Mameyes Memorial Museum) under Ponce mayor María Meléndez.^[12] It is also known as "Sala Memorial del Barrio Mameyes" as it operates as a part of the Museo de la Historia de Ponce.^[13]

The idea of creating a Ponce history museum dates back to the 1930s, following a citizens group's initiative, but the project did not materialize then. Interest in the proposal revived years later under Ponce's Secretariat of Culture. The plan visualized a museum to be constructed on the block bordered by Isabel, Mayor, Cristina, and Salud streets, and Casa Salazar and Casa Zapater, two historic homes, were acquired, as was the empty lot where Casa Shuck Gelpí had once stood. However, the project came to a standstill once again.

The plan was revived once again, but with modifications, at the end of the 1980s. This time the project came under the direction of Ms. Maruja Candal Salazar and Dr. Neysa Rodríguez Deynes (curator and founder). They worked in conjunction with a team of curators that included Lizette Cabrera Salcedo, Dr. José Molinelli, Alberto del Toro, and J. A. Figueroa Irizarry, as well as museum specialists Aníbal Sepúlveda, Néstor Barretto, and Jorge Carbonell, members of the Carimar Research Center. The four-year period from 1989 to 1992 saw the restoration of the Salazar and Zapater houses to serve as home to the museum, and the completion of the research, planning, and design of its first four permanent exhibit halls of the museum, namely, ecology, panorama, economic activity, and architecture.^[14]

In 1994, the second phase of the project was initiated, under the direction of Lizette Cabrera Salcedo: the creation of two permanent exhibits, one focused on health and one entitled "Ponce in Puerto Rican Political Life", in addition to a multimedia presentation "Ponce is Ponce." In 1998, the Ernesto Ramos Antonini auditorium, designed by architect José Bermúdez, was inaugurated under the direction of Lizette Cabrera Salcedo, at the location of the old Shuck Gelpí House.

By 2002, ten years after its founding, the Museum of the History of Ponce had become one of Puerto Rico's most active cultural centers,^[15] and Puerto Rico's most complete history museum.^[16] The museum provides a variety of cultural offerings intended to strengthen and increase awareness of the study of Puerto Rican and Ponceño history. As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations, the third and last phase of the museum's development was begun. It included two permanent exhibits on education and daily life, and the creation of a general museum catalog.

The main building that houses the museum has stained-glass windows, mosaics, and interior patios. Both buildings where the museum is housed are turn-of-the-20th-century homes. The Salazar House dates from 1911 and was designed by Blas Silva Boucher in an eclectic neoclassical style. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Zapater home, on the other hand, represents the criollo townhouse typology. It was built in 1880 and rebuilt in 1925. The Zapater residence was home to some of Ponce's most notable families, including the Clausells, Dapena, Zapater, and Rosaly families. It was also designed by Blas Silva.^[17]

The museum consists of 10 exhibition halls. It showcases facts, documents, objects, and relics of Ponce's history, demonstrating the importance of the city in the development of the history of Puerto Rico, including its intellectual, political, social, cultural, and economic aspects. It also covers the role of the city in the artistic development of Puerto Rican culture in the areas of music, theater, opera, literature, and journalism. Included in the exhibits are depictions of the ethnic cultures that influenced southern Puerto Rico culture, such as Spanish, African and non-European immigrants.

The process of putting together the collections involved over 200 of Ponce's own citizens who lent or donated the photographs, documents, and objects that make up the collections. The current collection has over 3,000 photographs, documents, pieces of furniture, and objects on display in the exhibition halls, or conserved in the museum's storage areas.

The most important collections include:

• Casa Salazar-Candal