San Pablo City Chronicles V: San Pablo City Hall/Capitol/Museum

* the city hall of old times; housing some of the few offices such as COMELEC; a museum upstairs is supposed to be under construction

* a picture of of the city hall in the 1940s; photo from the Museo de San Pablo blog site

* stairs on the ‘main’ (second) floor leading to the floors allotted for the city museum

* corridor towards the city COMELEC office inside the building

* the infamous balete tree found just behind the old city hall

The old San Pablo City Hall or commonly called ‘Kapitolyo’ by the San Pableños stands on the ground purchased for local government use in 1937. The newly erected town hall, designed by the Division of Architecture of the Bureau of Public Works at that time, was inaugurated on March 30, 1940. President Manuel Quezon and Speaker Jose Yulo were the guests of honor. San Pablo was still a town then when it was inaugurated. But requests by the local officials paid off when the town was turned into a city that same year, making San Pablo the first city in Laguna.

Today it houses only a few offices as it is now being turned into a museum. I have been following closely the blog about the Museum de San Pablo. There are no substantial updates to date, but perhaps things are still ongoing, hopefully. In any case, it was a good choice for a museum for the building’s impressive architecture alone is already enticing.

More info about the city hall and its proposed conversion to a museum can be found at the Museo ng San Pablo blog, maintained by the principal of my alma mater, Ma’am Lerma Prudente.