Casa Roig Museum, Humacao, Puerto Rico

5ELLEN B 5:00 PM Oct 21, 2016

Best surprise of the week!
A MUST SEE SIDETRIP!!! If you are in Humacao or staying in Palmas del Mar you owe it to yourself to check out this little gem of a prairie style house museum, a caribbean Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed by Antonin Nechodoma in 1919, the geometric designed windows in pretty pastels are absolutely gorgeous. There are also a few mahogany desks original to the house. We arrived 15 minutes before closing time, but the incredibly kind director gave us an extensive personal tour. Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra, author of Eating Puerto Rico, a history of food, culture and identity was our tour guide! How lucky for us! His passion for the restoration of this historic home, his knowledge of many subjects, made this the highlight of our trip! The director also gave us a preview of their next art exhibition, and it was tempting to consider altering our flights to extend our stay for the opening reception. Touring this home really helped us to see how the wealthy lived in Puerto Rico at the turn of the century.

5Theresa C 5:00 PM Mar 24, 2015

Little gem of a museum in an unexpected place
After almost a full week of beaches and forests, we were looking for something else to do in Humacao and saw a flyer for this house museum. In a street in Humacao crowded with doctor's offices and small shops, the Casa Roig sits like an ocean liner in a fishing village. We arrived late, about an hour before the museum was scheduled to close, and the gate was locked. The security guard told us the museum was closed while an exhibition was being changed out, but he would check to see if we could come in and look around. The director, Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra (who is the author of Eating Puerto Rico, an ethnographic study of the foods of PR), personally welcomed us and gave us a personal tour. His enthusiasm for the place and the potential was infectious, and we thoroughly enjoyed talking about everything from why the kitchen did not have a gas stove (the older women who cooked for the family were only comfortable with a traditional stove) to the upcoming exhibition for Earth day by an environmental artist. The museum does not charge admission, but donations to continue to protect and celebrate this resource are gratefully accepted.