Monuments
Address: Balashi Year Built: 1899 Open to Public: Yes Ownership: Government of Aruba The first gold mining industry was located at the Bushiribana Gold Smelter, where the Aruba Gold Mining Company was active till 1899. In that year, the company was dissolved and a new one was founded in London, the Aruba Gold Concessions, Ltd. [...]
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Address: L.G. Smith Blvd 172 Year Built: 1929 Open to Public: No Ownership: Government of Aruba The Eagle Refinery was established by the Royal Dutch Shell in the 1920’s. It stood where now the low-rise hotels, the golf course and the hospital are located. The Eagle Refinery got its name being an affiliate of the [...]
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Address: Bubali 119 Year Built: 1918 Open to Public: Yes Ownership: Private Mansion Quinta del Carmen was built in 1918 by Adriaan Laclé, a prominent local businessman. As many rich Arubans before him, he built the large weekend house in the countryside. He named it after his daughter Maria del Carmen. The Laclé family did [...]
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Address: L.G. Smith Blvd 78 Year Built: 1942 Open to Public: No Ownership: Government of Aruba When World War II broke out in Europe in 1940, when Holland was occupied by the Germans in May of that year, the Dutch Caribbean islands were left without enough defense to protect the oil refineries on Aruba and [...]
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Address: Wilhelminastraat 17-19 Period Built: Early 20th century Open to Public: NO Ownership: private In Wilhelminastraat, across from the Eman merchant's house, one finds Addison Croes' merchant's house. It dates back to the year 1913. About a century ago, Addison Winfried Croes was a prominent business man, who lived on the first floor of this [...]
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Address: Steenweg 20 Year Built: 1916 Open to Public: No Ownership: private In 1916, businessman Adriaan Laclé built this monumental townhouse on Steenweg, in the former merchant quarter between Wilhelminastraat and Nassaustraat, now Caya G.F. Betico Croes. When Adriaan Laclé's son, Amadeo ('Amador') Laclé went to live in the house after his father died, the [...]
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Location Wilhelminastraat 24 Year Built: mid 20th century Open to Public: No Ownership: private This townhouse was built around 1946 by Godfried ('Concon') Croes, a trader in aloe vera products, and his spouse Sarah Catharina ('Carry') Croes. The building's architecture was inspired by the Latin American Neo-Baroque style that was prevalent in the Colombian port [...]
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Location Wilhelminastraat 18 Year Built: end of the 19th century. Open to Public: YES Ownership: private This partially attached merchant's house was built in the late 19th, beginning of the 20th century by Cornelis Hendrik Eman (1865-1914). The building was most probably built in two stages, the ground floor around 1890, the second - a [...]
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Location intersection Wilhelminastraat/Ooststraat Year Built: 1929 Open to Public: No Ownership: private The house known as "Cas di Brenchi" was built in Oranjestad in 1929. * Bruno Arends (Brenchi) was a well-known merchant in Oranjestad. The construction of this house was in the hands of Brenchi's older brother Jacobo (Coco) Arends. In 1932 the construction [...]
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Address: Caya Betico Croes 41 Year Built: 1925 Open to Public: No Ownership: Private John Gerard Eman was born on November 12, 1898 and was affectionately called 'Dudu' from an early age. He grew up in a time when Aruba did not yet have much economic activity. John started working in the pharmacy but soon [...]
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