Penstraat and “Nieuw Nederland
On the Penstraat, which in the past was known as 'road to Caracas Bay', 'road to Vianen' or 'Fiana', there were already some houses along the south coast in the 18th century, some with gardens. One of those 18th century buildings was Landhuis Goede Hoop, (the current restaurant 020) east of the current Avila Hotel, built around 1780. It was located “40 yards beyond the Governor's Pen”,i the country residence that was built during the period of the English Administration in Curaçao (1800-1803 and 1807-1816) and served as the residence of the English governors, who emphatically did not want to stay in Fort Amsterdam. The English called it “The Governor's Pen” or “the Pen” but it was also known by the name “Belle Alliance” or “Schoon Verbond”. It was a “very beautiful building in the best of taste”ii and was just steps away from Landhuis Goede Hoop. It is reasonable to presume that “the road to Vianen” was changed to “Penstraat”, after the most prominent place on this road.
In the last years of the English administration, Curaçao was not doing well economically; trade had collapsed and a drought had set in, making the 'administration at the Pen' less and less popular:
“It is April 1815, (…) when something occurs that seems to indicate that people had had enough of English rule. Negroes and colored people hold a procession to “Berg Altena” and carry dolls representing English officers in uniform, with the intention of burying them there. There was a publication from the governor and councils, which spoke of disturbing the general rest and peace and that serious punishment was threatened if repeated.”iii [quotation 1945].
It is plausible that the restoration of the Dutch administration in March 1816 gave reason to introduce distinctly Dutch names in the vicinity of the English 'administrative Pen': the “Oranjestraat” that ran parallel to the Penstraat and the area between the Oranjestraat and Penstraat, just in front of the English administration, was called “New Netherlands”.
Governor Cantz'laar (1820-1828) is also said to have preferred his residence on Penstraat and traveled to Punda twice a week to handle current affairs. The 'New Netherlands' area only later - after the arrival of the oil industry in 1915 - grew and densified into a neighborhood with many immigrants from the Windward and English-speaking Caribbean islands.
After studying old maps, it can be concluded that the Penstraat was far from fully built until the mid-19th century. The map of Ninaber (ca. 1830) shows buildings on the south side of Penstraat, some of which are quite close to the sea. Later maps such as Meijer (1865) and Werbata (1910) show a series of buildings that all correspond quite exactly to the current situation and are located some distance from the sea. In addition to the maps, the architecture of the larger houses on Penstraat also points to the period in which most of those buildings were constructed; namely the middle of the 19th century.iv The period in which trade in Curaçao, especially smuggling trade, was doing a little better.
However, around this time, the first designs were also made in the same style on behalf of the private sector. In 1854, the businessman and founder of the Maduro group, Salomon Elias Levy Maduro, commissioned a design for his new home in Pietermaai. For this purpose, he brought over a Corsican architect, Bartholomé Lyon. The large house 'Cerro Bonito', finished construction in May 1857 and was inhabited by S.E.L. Maduro that year.v
The houses on the sea side of Penstraat were not officially bordered by the sea. A 'patrol path' ran along the coast, a narrow footpath from Fort Amsterdam to Fort Beekenburg near Caracas Bay, which was intended for soldiers, but could also be used by civilians. On either side of the plots on
Penstraat there were narrow corridors from Penstraat to the patrol path, along which the servants of the residents of the buildings on the north side of Penstraat emptied buckets of feces into the sea. This happened early every morning before sunrise.
The great hurricane of 1877 had completely blown away the houses in ‘Pietermaai Smal’, the sea had reached a storm surge of 4 to 5 meters above normal level and had completely flooded the land connection between the sea and the Waaigat. The houses on the sea side of Penstraat were relatively less hard hit. The damage was limited to damaged garden walls, roof tiles and broken window shutters.
The arrival of the oil industry, increasing prosperity and increased wages in the 20th century in Curaçao meant that the maintenance of the large buildings on Penstraat became progressively difficult to finance. A number of the buildings on Penstraat were split into several homes, rented, sold or slowly fell into disrepair. New employees at the refinery also created new neighborhoods: north of the Penstraat these were the neighborhoods Nieuw Nederland, Monte Berde, Cornet and Cher Asile. But neighborhoods such as Fleur de Marie, at the “kop of Scharloo”, near the harbor, and St. Jago, behind Scharloo, also emerged during this period.
The water factory was built on Penstraat, near the Avila Hotel, in the 1930s, which served there until the new factory in Mundo Nobo came into use in the 1950s. The Employment Service (Dienst Arbeidszorg) then took over part of the factory space. The Avila Beach Hotel opened its doors in 1949 on the initiative of Dr. Gungu Maal. In 1977, Nic Møller took over the hotel and expanded it steadily.
M. Scriwanek
i Langefeld, De Goede Hoop, p. 18 ii Ibidem, 17 iii De Gaay Fortman, “Curaçao onder Engelsch Bestuur van 1807 tot 1816”. Uit: De West Indische Gids 26 jrg p. 229-246, 1945. iv Newton, “Kas di Pueblo Penstraat 22 -24: The history of an Iconic Building”. Uit: Kas di Pueblo: Kas ku un Mishon. 2019. Fundashon Maria Liberia-Peters. v Ibidem.
