Opening in 1978, the Museo ni Manuel Quezon in the first museum within the Quezon Memorial Park, however there would be more museums to open under the administration of Mayor Herbert Constantine “Bistek” Maclang Bautista (born May 12, 1968), starting with the Quezon City Experience in 2012.
In the next year, the Quezon Heritage House opened in the park, due to urgent needs to preserve the old home of Pres. Manuel Luis Molina Quezón (1878-1944), along Governor General Eugene Allen Gilmore Avenue in New Manila, which he purchased by installment through Colin MacRae Hoskins and Doña Magdalena Hashim Ysmael-Hemady (1877-1955), owner of New Manila. Pres. Quezón had bought house in the area in 1927, far from his Pasay home, to be closer to the Santol Sanitarium for the treatment of his tuberculosis. Over the years, the house was left abandoned by the Quezon family, who were trying to sell the lot. Despite the requests of the Quezon City government, under then-Mayor Fernando Feliciano “Sonny” Racimo Belmonte Jr. (born October 2, 1936) approached the National Historical Commission, to have the house declared a heritage home, but it did not fit the necessary requirements for the national government’s protection. So in 2011, the house was sold, and the new owners wanted to bulldoze the home for a modern design.
Since 1920, then-Senator Quezón and his family stayed during the weekdays at their home along Gen. Charles Duval Roberts Street, in Pasay City, which was easier to get to presidential Malacañang Palace (6.5 kilometers away) and the Philippine Senate (4.7 kilometers away), as well as being close to the Assumption Convent and the De La Salle College where their children studied. The Roberts Street house was a beach-side property near Manila Bay; and it was also strategically close to the Nichols Airfield, three kilometers away. Because the home along Gilmore Avenue is almost less than 6 kilometers from the Legislative Building (the senate), Sen. Quezón and his family would spend the weekends there for the clean air and for his appointments at the Santol Sanitarium. The family would move into the Malacañang Palace in 1935, following Quezón’s election as the 2nd President of the Philippine in 1935, effectively leaving the house in Pasay City, while maintaining the weekend Gilmore home for his continued tuberculosis treatments. Sadly, the Roberts Street house was destroyed during World War II, by the Japanese soldiers who occupied the house after the Quezons fled in 1942.
After the war, Pres. Sergio Osmeña Sr. (1878-1961), appoints former Assistant City Attorney of Quezon City Oscar Tombo Castelo (1903-1982) as the acting vice-mayor of the Greater Manila Area. Vice-Mayor Castelo occupies the Quezón home in New Manila as his temporary office, because the Japanese had destroyed the city hall near the corner the Marikina-Infanta Highway (now Aurora Boulevard) and the North–South Circumferential Road (now EDSA). Vice-Mayor Castelo would continue to use the Quezón home as his office, until Eng. Ponciano A. Bernardo (1905-1949) was appointed by Osmeña as the second mayor of Quezon City on the 1st of January 1946. On the 27th of July 1946, Doña Aurora Antonia Molina Aragón Quezón (1888-1949) and her family would return to the house, after accompanying Pres. Quezón’s coffin onboard the carrier USS Princeton CV-37 (commissioned 1945-1970) and lay to rest at the Manila North Cemetery.
The Quezon Heritage House is the only surviving home of the late president, whether in Metro Manila or his hometown of Baler. Other Quezon properties that are no longer in existence: the summer home along Benito Tuason Legarda Road, in Baguio City; the Kaledian farm in Arayat, Pampanga Province; and the Marikina rest house and farm in Barranca (now Barangka), Mariquina, which may be the current site of the Monasterio de Santa Clara.
So with the New Manila home in threat of being demolished, preserving the house was of utmost importance for the Quezon City government, in respects to its founder. Hence during the term of Mayor Bautista, he requested that he send experts to take what was left of the Quezon home and rebuild it within within a 700 square meter lot inside the Quezon Memorial Park, using 60% the house to restore the Quezon home. So in 2013, the Quezon Heritage House was opened to the public as a museum, featuring the interiors, furnishing and properties of the Quezón family, including some of their art collection.
Although the Quezon Heritage House shows influences of the Neoclassic Architecture that the American colonial government imposed on Philippine government buildings, the interior and layout have strong ties to the traditional Bahay-na-Bato of the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines. Much like the Bahay-na-Bato, the ground floor or zaguan is a multi-function work area, which Doña Aurora had used to establish the Philippine National Red Cross. It was in 1934, when Pres. Quezón attempted to organize the Philippine Red Cross, but it was not recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as the Philippine was not yet an independent state. Upon her return to the Philippines, Doña Aurora went to work for the recognition of the Philippine Red Cross, with the aid of Pres. Manuel Acuña Roxas (1892-1948). And the 22nd of March 1947, Pres. Roxas signed the Philippine Red Cross Charter (Republic Act 95), and was followed by the ICRC recognizing the organization, with Doña Aurora as it first chairperson.
At the ground floor, there is a cuarto or bedroom used by Doña Aurora, when she didn’t want to go use the upstairs bedroom. Within the bedroom are two reliefs of the head of Pres. Quezón, which were created by Graciano T. Nepomuceno (1881-1974) and a certain P. Żółcią.
There are actually two bedrooms at the ground floor of the Quezon home, which may have been originally used by their children: María Aurora (1919-1949), María Zenaida (born 1921), and Manuel Lucio, Jr. (1926-1998). A fourth child, Luisa Corazón Paz, died at birth in 1924.
Entry to the Quezon home ground floor was through a wooden door, with a red-brick porte-cochère doorway that extended at the outside.
There are three access points to the second floor: the main stairway or escalera coming for the outside and leads to the kitchen, a spiral stairway that also connects to the living room from the ground floor, and a utility stairway that come from the backyard and connects to the kitchen. This design followed an American period “innovation” to the traditional bahay-na-bato, where the ground floor still was used as a storeroom, garage, and workshop but the main stairway was now on the outside, and not coming from the ground floor as it was in the Spanish Occupation Period. The main stairway leads to a small porticio or porch with baldozas mosaicas-styled tiles, in which Pres. Quezón and Doña Aurora would either entertain guests, or just relax with the family to enjoy the cool clean air.
The living room or sala at the second floor is very spacious, where Pres. Quezón and Doña Aurora would frequently entertain guests. Given that Hacienda Magdalena was the new residential area for Manila’s rich and powerful, and many of the residents would have wanted to have a friendly conversations with the Quezóns or talk business in preparation of the week to come.
Like the bahay-na-bato, the sala or living room is divided into two areas by a caida or landing. Whereas the caida would traditionally separate the sala minor, where children and guests of less importance would stay, from the sala mayor, where the adults or VIPs would talk. In the case of the Quezon home, the caida divided the living room and the comedor or dining room.
The cosina or kitchen is very simple and well lit, with the wide windows and capiz shell (Placuna placenta) shutters. What is interesting about the kitchen are the infographic on display, listing the recipes of Doña Aurora’s favorite dishes.
The bedrooms or cuartos of Pres. Quezón and Doña Aurora were separate, and linked only by a communal bathroom or baño. This was because Pres. Quezón could not sleep beside Doña Aurora due to his tuberculosis.
What greatly differentiates the Quezon Heritage House from bahay-na-bato is the social hall built beside the home. With so many guests coming over, it would have been prudent to meet most of them in an area away from the rest of the family. The social hall has an open-air area that features the strong neoclassical influence of high columns. What further emphasizes the neoclassic inspiration are the two Greek-styles caryatids (Καρυάτιδες) columns flanking the entrance to the inner room of the social hall. The use of the caryatids may stem for Pres. Quezón’s links to the Freemasons, who use these feminine shaped columns as symbols of wisdom, in relation to the Greek goddess Athena.
There is more to discover about the life of Pres. Quezón and Doña Aurora in the Quezon Heritage House, whether it is through the interesting infographics on their lives from the Commonwealth Era to World War II. There are also the many artifacts within the home, which give the visitor a glimpse of what was life like in that bygone era. And there are the artworks within the house that were given to Pres. Quezón and his family, which will be tackled in the next article.
Lakbay ng Lakan 
Biographies of our past leaders in coordinating cultures values and exact events is a great and vivid histodictionaries in our history as nation and somewhat collection of all facts are interconnected to the more clearer and mirror of our rich culture..thus future genre has the backbone a strong inspiration towards a better race a truly malayan.. a filipino.. a pinagpalang nation.
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