Heritage Series: The Old Houses of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija

I’ve always been fascinated by the old houses in Poblacion, San Antonio, Nueva Ecija. When I was little, we used to rent a house along the busy Gallego Street of our town. It was just a walking distance from my school and each morning, while my father and I made our way to school, I would always look at the big old houses along the way. I am not sure if they were Spanish-era houses, because it was just based on stories from our lady neighbor, but they were definitely antique houses.

Every afternoon after school, I would go to the nearby computer games shop, which is located inside one of the old houses that I used to marvel at. It was located at the corner of Lamson Street and Gallego Street. The house was mostly made of wood, Capiz shell windows, a stone foundation and staircase, and some metal fittings (if my memory serves me right). At some point, we were able to go inside this house to visit a wake, and our neighbor told us that it was built during the Spanish era. The house survived the Japanese occupation, and she even pointed a bullet hole in the wooden floor.

Right across this house, from Gallego Street, is another old house with an old drugstore located in the bottom floor. And across it from Lamson Street is another grand old house which used to be the residence of a former principal of one of the oldest secondary schools in our town. Diagonal from this house, located beside the old posong tumutulo, is the old house of the Gallego-Lamson Family.

Today, of the four old houses occupying the busy corners of Gallego Street, only the Gallego-Lamson Family house survives and is well-maintained.

It’s my dream to preserve the old houses of San Antonio because of their historical value. These houses also hold the potential to be tourist attractions to draw in historical buffs and lovers of antique houses. 

It’s not an easy task but we can probably begin with unearthing the history and unique story of each of the houses in San Antonio. On the other hand, I understand that these are privately-owned and, again, it’s up to the owners to decide on what to do with their houses. As such, I came up with this idea to preserve the old houses of San Antonio digitally, through this article and via the Facebook page Tara Sa San Antonio, Nueva Ecija.

I used these screenshots recorded from Google maps, just because the video shots that I took became pixelated when I took snapshots of them. Furthermore, it can be tedious to ask permission from each owner to take pictures of their house, or maybe share old photos that they have. 

The Toledo Family House is owned by Maestro Victor Toledo, the founder of the internationally-acclaimed Pangkat Kawayan, a group known for using instruments made of bamboo to promote Filipino culture and music. In fact, there are some parts of the house that are made of bamboo, like the staircase and wind chimes, that create musical sounds 

This is the house of General Isidoro Torres, a military leader during the time of President Aguinaldo. He fought against the Spanish, and later against the Americans. Eventually, when he settled here, he served as a peace officer in our town.

The ground floor of this house was used as a classroom during the 1950s.

This is the Odulio family's ancestral house. Gregoria and Fausto were the parents of Alfredo, Eufrocina, Feliciana Odulio Ortiz, Virginia Odulio Toledo, Pacifico, and Demetrio. Most of them worked as teachers, school supervisors, or principals—except for Virginia, who followed a path in music.

Most people don’t know that Fausto Catanghal—neighbor of the Odulio family and father of Emigdio, Teresita, Fermin, and others—was the first Filipino to serve in the U.S. Navy aboard the warship USS Saratoga. The family owns a large photo of the Navy crew, with Fausto standing on the deck of the Saratoga.

Said to be one of the oldest houses in San Antonio, the house of Impong Sabel is actually owned by three spinster sisters. They were known for having a store which soldmostly food items like bukayo, bread, candies, and many more. Some stories shared by San Antonio residents said that they remember buying at the store run by Impong Sabel from as far back as the 60s. 

One of the earliest and most well-known vocational schools in San Antonio is the MGM Fashion School, notably teaching tailoring/sewing/dressmaking, and even cosmetology. MGM stands for Miguela Galicia Magno, the owner of the school who used to run it with her husband, Tiyo Nardo. It is said that even students from neighboring towns would enroll in MGM Fashion School because of the quality of its education. Unfortunately, the school closed down a few years ago and has since been demolished.  

 

Bishop Vicente P. Reyes was known to many residents of San Antonio as the founder of St. Paul School (together with the SPC sisters). He was also the second Bishop of Cabanatuan.

He was born on May 24, 1907, to Modesto Reyes and Eulalia Posada. After losing her husband at a young age, Eulalia had to raise her children on her own—and she did an incredible job. Many of them went on to become professionals: a doctor, a banker, a pharmacist, several lawyers, a bishop, and a St. Paul sister (Sister Corazon, SPC of St. Paul's College, Manila).

Monsignor Vicente P. Reyes steadily rose through the ranks of the Church, eventually serving as Auxiliary Bishop of Manila. In 1960, he was appointed the first Bishop of Borongan in Eastern Samar, where he founded a seminary to nurture future priests. Later, in 1967, he became the second Bishop of Cabanatuan, following the creation of the Diocese in 1963 from parts of Lingayen-Dagupan and San Fernando. He served in Cabanatuan until 1983, leaving behind a legacy of leadership and service.

As clarified by Mr. Alvin Velaaquez (originally in Tagalog, translated to English):

"Additional clarification about the house on Herrera Street: This house was built before 1918, according to what was shared with me. It was constructed by the couple Julian Embuscado Ortiz and Ysidra Rivera Lamzon.

Their children who were born in this house include Dr. Alfredo Ortiz, Alfonso Ortiz, Dionisia Ortiz Bigting, Feliza Ortiz Luna, Visitacion Ortiz Velasquez, and Lolita Ortiz Borja.

The house remains part of the Ortiz family community. The land on which it stands is part of the inheritance of Feliza O. Luna, as a daughter of Julian Ortiz."

The lower level of this house was once the location of Sta. Teresita School of Arts & Fashion.

Based on collective information from various contributors:

That house belonged to Alejo Corico Ortiz and Esperanza Agapito Ortiz. Their children include Yolanda Ortiz Javier and Engr. Renato Agapito Ortiz. Back in the 1980s, the family also ran a store called RG’s, and the house served as one of the stations for Palm Sunday processions where children, dressed as angels, would scatter flower petals. They were also the owners of the Ortiz Poultry Farm. The land on which the house stands was inherited from their grandparents, Sixto Santiago Ortiz and Perpetua de Guzman Corico Ortiz.

From a contributor:

This house belonged to Father Monsignor Francisco Domingo and was once home to Botica Anatalia during the time when they were still strong and active. It was the only pharmacy in town that people could wake up in the middle of the night to buy life-saving medicine for the sick—an invaluable service to the community of San Antonio.

Contrary to rumors, it was never a mental institution. A relative by marriage who had fallen ill stayed there after the original owners had passed away. One of the former residents also shared that they lived in the house and would sweep the broken road outside every morning.

In any case, if you are an owner of one of the houses featured above and below and you want it excluded from this article, please feel free to reach out to me, and I will delete the photo. On another note, if you want to have your house featured in this post, feel free to submit a photo via the Tara Sa San Antonio, Nueva Ecija Facebook page.

Here are more photos of the antique houses of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, from Poblacion:

Again, I hope our town can exert some effort to preserve these houses. Via digital museum or archive, perhaps? Especially since there are owners who would opt to convert their property into a commercial complex because paying property tax can be an expensive task.

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