Eventually Hacienda Buena Vista would become one of the most successful plantations in the mountains of Puerto Rico.Ī series of hurricanes and the failing coffee market brought operations at the Hacienda to a standstill by 1900, and gradually Hacienda Buena Vista fell into disrepair and was partially abandoned. Don Salvador's son and grandson introduced some of the most innovative farm machinery on the island, powered by a nearby 100-foot (30 m) waterfall. Later, Don Salvador's grandson oversaw the addition of coffee growing and processing to the plantains and cornmeal, taking advantage of the great coffee-growing boom of the 1880s and 1890s. In 1845, the son of Don Salvador added a corn mill operation to the profitable fruit and vegetable production. Originally, the Vives estate covered 500 acres (2.0 km 2). De Vives was a Catalan immigrant arriving from Venezuela and he set up the farm to sell its produce in the Ponce market and in the sugarcane estates along the southern coast. Hacienda Buena Vista was started as a truck farm to produce mostly plantains, bananas, corn and avocados, by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833. These products were staples for the subsistence of the local population. These range from the cultivation of produce such as plantains (1833–1845) to the production of flour (from rice and corn) (1847–1872). Hacienda Buena Vista is also significant because it shows the evolution of the coffee industry in the region. It is said to have even been the favorite at the Vatican at the time. This is important because in the latter part of the nineteenth century the coffee produced in Puerto Rico and exported to Europe and the United States was considered among the finest in the world. The second reason Hacienda Buena Vista is significant is that it offers one of the best remaining examples of a Puerto Rican coffee plantation. It was nominated as a Mechanical Engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in July 1994. First, it contains the only remaining example of the Barker hydraulic turbine, which was the first reaction type turbine ever made.
The Hacienda is significant for various reasons.
It is now owned by the Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Conservation Trust), which operates it as a museum which it opened in 1986.Įntrance sign at Hacienda Buena Vista on Puerto Rico Highway 123 ( PR-123) in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico The original Hacienda covered 482 cuerdas (approx. The plantation house was built in the Spanish Colonial style, with the surrounding buildings being built in the local Criollo style. The Hacienda is located on 81.79 acres (331,000 m 2) of fertile land that includes a humid subtropical forest some 7 miles (11 km) north of Ponce on Route PR-123, in Corral Viejo, a subbarrio of Barrio Magueyes. The plantation was started by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833. The original plantation dates from the 19th century. This acute shortage of extant early hydromachinery is the principal reason why the technological history of the water motor remains obscure and relatively poorly documented.Recently, however, the discovery of a unique turbine located on a plantation at Ponce, near the south coast of Puerto Rico, promised to open a new window on the past.Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives (or Buena Vista Plantation in English), was a coffee plantation located in Barrio Magueyes, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Johnson assessed the 'Buena Vista Turbine' in the following way: Only the three Scotch turbines-first patented in the 1840s-are known to exist in the United States. It is significant that in the mid-1840s-while the hacienda was being developed-the Scotch turbine was being patented in the United States after European designs (particularly the La Cour's centrifugal wheel). Apparently, the Buena Vista turbine builder used the Scotch turbine principles to make the one in situ, adapting at the same time parts of the Baker's design with added improvements of its own. On the other hand, it is not a Scotch turbine either, being this a modification of the Baker turbine. Nevertheless, the wheels have an element in common since their arms are very similar in so far as it refers to shape, position, and function. Although the turbine is not a classic 17th-century Baker's centrifugal or reaction turbine wheel it might be a transformed one, since this 'Buena Vista Turbine' does not fit within the Baker's description.
0 kommentar(er)
