Casa Peynado: house with three facades

Walking along Las Mercedes street requires, for most of the route, to cross from one sidewalk to another only at the corners. Otherwise it is almost impossible. The sidewalk is several inches above the road, and there is a deep gutter in between. Whoever gets out of a parked car must exit through the door that opens towards the side of vehicular traffic. That’s why I think about it a lot before heading down that important road. I wonder if one day, with the restoration program of the Colonial City, they will correct such an unusual unevenness. In the meantime, to God that distributes luck and hope that no tourist falls, because the demand would come ipso facto. I’m not talking to talk. It is that I experienced the difficulty a few days ago, when it occurred to me to look for the only house in these parts that has three facades; the Peynado House. Its main entrance is on March 19 street. Its other exteriors face Mercedes and Luperón streets, respectively. To view it from different perspectives, I cross over to the small María Trinidad Sánchez park, martyr of National Independence. It is said of this brave woman that to maintain modesty she asked for a man’s pants (at that time women did not wear pants) to wear under her skirt when she fell shot by the bullets. On the date that I walked through the area, the Peynado Residence was in the process of being repaired. Scaffolding on one side and wooden planks to hide entrance doors prevent admiring it in all its splendor. It is that ‘this building was awarded the prize for the best construction granted by the City Council of Santo Domingo as an incentive to achieve a better image of the city’. This is indicated by the Santo Domingo Architecture Guide, although it does not specify the date of recognition.

Built in 1910, its author was Andrés Gómez Pintado, starting from the neoclassical style and decorating with naturist details. The cantilevered balconies stand out “on reinforced concrete slabs, protected with prefabricated iron railings, of art nouveau design, a stylistic treatment that was in vogue in Santo Domingo during the first decades of the 20th century.” (Architectural Guide of Santo Domingo).

lawyer

Francisco J. Peynado (Pancho) lived in this house, the lawyer who was ‘the architect of the Hughes-Peynado document, which served as a negotiation for the definitive departure of the North American troops that intervened in the country from 1916 to 1924’.

A street in Santo Domingo bears his name. Most citizens, however, are unaware of its relevance.

Source-listindiario.com