Uncle Louis Store
| Address: | B van der Veen Zeppenfeldtstraat 7 |
|---|---|
| Year built: | 1950 |
| Open to public: | No |
The Uncle Louis Store was built in 1951 by Mr. Leon Waitzberg. He had left Eastern Europe and via a long way finally settled in Aruba. He was a merchant and started a store in San Nicolas in 1937.
This city on the east side of Aruba had flourished economically since the opening of the refinery in 1924 and attracted people from all over the world to live and work there.
Business was going well and he decided to build a new shop on the Main Street with a warehouse and a house on the upper floor for himself and his wife. He did hire John Nisbeth in 1945 when John was still very young. He later became the right-hand of Uncle Louis, as Mr. Waitzberg was known in San Nicolas. After Uncle Louis died in 1966, he became the manager of the store, which Uncle Louis left to his wife.
Uncle Louis Store is now the office of the ‘Directie Natuur en Milieu’ and was restored in 2019 by Monumentsfund Aruba.
This building is currently the most sustainable monument on the island.