Last updated: July 18, 2024
Place
Iglesia Cristiana
Photograph by Juan Llanes Santos, courtesy of Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
110 Luis Muñoz Rivera Street, Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico
Significance:
Architecture, Social History
Designation:
Listed in the National Register – Reference Number 100010384
MANAGED BY:
Private
The Iglesia Cristiana (Christian Church), a 1923 Protestant church, located in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
The first years of the 20th century found Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, a small town that had the optimal conditions for growth. The municipality was located in a rich alluvial area, with well-flowing rivers, an irrigation infrastructure, easy access to port areas and an accessible labor force, mostly located in the urban center, with a long tradition of agricultural work. This labor force, since the 19th century, was nourished not only by its local population, but also by workers from other municipalities who moved to Santa Isabel in search of work and ended up as permanent residents.
By the end of the 19th century coffee dominated the agricultural production on the island. However, the change of sovereignty, from Spain to the United States in 1898, an unfavorable tariff policy, the lack of interest for coffee from the U.S. and European investors, and the disastrous impact of a hurricane in 1899 made evident the weakness of the coffee industry, leaving the way open for the sugar boom. The economic policy established during the period of the U.S. military government continued under the civilian government created by the Foraker Act of 1900, weakened the local monetary and loan structure. This weakening of local power structures facilitated the acquisition of productive lands by U.S. capitalists and the displacement of native landowners by the large U.S. sugar consortiums. In the years following the occupation, investors from the U.S. sugar refining industry acquired large tracts of land that were made into large sugar cane estates and established mills that eventually controlled half of the country's sugar production.
Material production was not the only area disrupted by the cession of Puerto Rico to the United States. The new metropolis took to oversee the organization and function of all essential social structures. This overtaking included the separation of Church and State, which eroded four hundred years of spiritual monopoly of the Catholic Church and opening the space for a militant crusade of Protestant evangelization. The Foraker Act established a local civil administration, controlled by the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President. Very significant to the new social forces operating in the island was the fact that the Foraker Act established the practice of total separation of State and Church.
The project of salvation was strongly attached to a political-cultural project. The missionaries arrived with the English Bible in one hand and the American flag in the other, fusing in their discourse a new religious posture, a new Protestant morality and a new project of assimilation. To better achieve this project, construction of churches and temples began. In Santa Isabel, the Protestant presence began in 1901. A building for the Santa Isabel’s congregation was authorized by the Christian Church Mission Board on October 21, 1919. By the end of July 1922, architect Fidel Sevillano prepared the plans for the new church, and on July 10, 1923, the cover page of the Puerto Rico Evangélico celebrated the completion of the new chapel in Santa Isabel.
The Mission/Spanish Colonial style applied by Fidel Sevillano for the Iglesia Cristiana served to create an architectural statement that differentiated the property from its surrounding-built landscape. Iglesia Cristiana broke-away from the traditional neoclassical language deeply associated with the Spanish period and its representatives, like the Catholic churches. The Iglesia Cristiana’s building represents the arrival and binding of Santa Isabel to a series of significant events that island-wide defined the socio-political relations between Puerto Rico and the United States during the early years of the 20th century. The property embodies the establishment of the protestant factions in Puerto Rico in establishing a new moral project fused with an acculturation discourse.
The first years of the 20th century found Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, a small town that had the optimal conditions for growth. The municipality was located in a rich alluvial area, with well-flowing rivers, an irrigation infrastructure, easy access to port areas and an accessible labor force, mostly located in the urban center, with a long tradition of agricultural work. This labor force, since the 19th century, was nourished not only by its local population, but also by workers from other municipalities who moved to Santa Isabel in search of work and ended up as permanent residents.
By the end of the 19th century coffee dominated the agricultural production on the island. However, the change of sovereignty, from Spain to the United States in 1898, an unfavorable tariff policy, the lack of interest for coffee from the U.S. and European investors, and the disastrous impact of a hurricane in 1899 made evident the weakness of the coffee industry, leaving the way open for the sugar boom. The economic policy established during the period of the U.S. military government continued under the civilian government created by the Foraker Act of 1900, weakened the local monetary and loan structure. This weakening of local power structures facilitated the acquisition of productive lands by U.S. capitalists and the displacement of native landowners by the large U.S. sugar consortiums. In the years following the occupation, investors from the U.S. sugar refining industry acquired large tracts of land that were made into large sugar cane estates and established mills that eventually controlled half of the country's sugar production.
Material production was not the only area disrupted by the cession of Puerto Rico to the United States. The new metropolis took to oversee the organization and function of all essential social structures. This overtaking included the separation of Church and State, which eroded four hundred years of spiritual monopoly of the Catholic Church and opening the space for a militant crusade of Protestant evangelization. The Foraker Act established a local civil administration, controlled by the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President. Very significant to the new social forces operating in the island was the fact that the Foraker Act established the practice of total separation of State and Church.
The project of salvation was strongly attached to a political-cultural project. The missionaries arrived with the English Bible in one hand and the American flag in the other, fusing in their discourse a new religious posture, a new Protestant morality and a new project of assimilation. To better achieve this project, construction of churches and temples began. In Santa Isabel, the Protestant presence began in 1901. A building for the Santa Isabel’s congregation was authorized by the Christian Church Mission Board on October 21, 1919. By the end of July 1922, architect Fidel Sevillano prepared the plans for the new church, and on July 10, 1923, the cover page of the Puerto Rico Evangélico celebrated the completion of the new chapel in Santa Isabel.
The Mission/Spanish Colonial style applied by Fidel Sevillano for the Iglesia Cristiana served to create an architectural statement that differentiated the property from its surrounding-built landscape. Iglesia Cristiana broke-away from the traditional neoclassical language deeply associated with the Spanish period and its representatives, like the Catholic churches. The Iglesia Cristiana’s building represents the arrival and binding of Santa Isabel to a series of significant events that island-wide defined the socio-political relations between Puerto Rico and the United States during the early years of the 20th century. The property embodies the establishment of the protestant factions in Puerto Rico in establishing a new moral project fused with an acculturation discourse.