The origins of Vedado as a residential neighborhood must be found around 1858, when the Havana City Council approved the subdivision of the El Carmelo farm, a property that extended from the current Paseo Avenue to the Almendares River.
Shortly after, the El Vedado farm that occupied the space between G Street and the limits of El Carmelo would be divided. The urbanization continued later with the Medina area, towards Infanta, an alley that then marked the western limit of the old Cuban capital, and also extended to the Castillo del Príncipe, an old fortified castle on top of the hill.
Over time, the area covered by these districts would become known as El Vedado. This was the old forbidden zone, hence its name, where it was previously forbidden to live, sow, deforest and raise livestock in the interest of defending colonial Havana.
The blocks would be about a hundred meters on each side on average, and the rational use of numbers and letters to name the streets was then introduced, in a blatant reaction of Americanization.
The urbanization would have two transverse avenues, real parks, the avenues G and Paseo. The road layout was oriented to facilitate the entry of breezes. The project envisaged the existence of parks and wooded areas, so the garden had to be part of the house.
The first street designed was Línea, so called because the horse-drawn tram ran along it, until this means of locomotion was replaced by the first non-animal-powered passenger vehicle that the city had, which apparently left from the intersection of Prado and San Lázaro streets and reached El Carmelo. This first steam engine, in 1900, would in turn be replaced by the electric tram, traces of which can still be seen on some of the city's main avenues.
Land sales were slow at first in El Vedado. In 1870, there were only about twenty houses. At that time, the wooden mansions were built in a clear style imported directly from New Orleans, United States, and they were located almost all on Linea and Calzada Streets, near the sea.
Around 1895, there was already a remarkable development in the El Vedado neighborhood. But it was especially at the beginning of the 20th century that sumptuous houses emerged to accentuate the exclusivity of the new residential area.
The proximity of the sea had in fact made the neighborhood relevant. On the coast, several bathing resorts had been created since 1864. The Havana residents went there for tourism. At the time, people bathed in so-called drowning pools, natural coves or those artificially dug into the rocks. There were small beaches, with areas reserved for the family, and other very spacious ones, in which men and women bathed separately. The right to bathe in the sea cost 50 cents.
These famous baths, however, disappeared with the expansion of the Malecón from 1950.
After the end of the War of Independence in 1898 and the establishment of the Republic in 1902, El Vedado acquired an unusual boom. The wealthy of descent left the crowded and noisy Old Havana and bought land to build in the new and very spacious neighborhood. The nouveau riche did the same, as did some high officials of the Liberation Army who were finally receiving their salaries. Those who made their fortunes at the expense of politics also arrived and settled around the new exclusive neighborhood.
Residences of all sizes, luxuries and styles sprang up everywhere. Not only the lower part, bordering the sea, but also the area of La Loma was quickly populated.
The Paseo del Prado and the Cerro neighborhood were no longer of interest to people with sufficient resources to obtain their own housing.
A number of cinemas, theatres, museums, boutiques and luxury hotels such as the Victoria, the Presidente and the Nacional have also flourished.
It would not take long for powerful rivals to emerge in Havana's western neighborhoods, across the river from Almendares, Miramar, where the richest would eventually make their final approach.
Even so, El Vedado, in the 50s, would become the most modern neighborhood of Havana, where the tallest buildings were erected and the most fabulous hotels built.
Even then, El Vedado claimed its right to be the heart of the Cuban capital, one of the great achievements of urban planning on the island, which continues to be, for living and working, the best neighborhood in Havana, according to the opinion of many of its proud residents.
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