This merchant house was built around 1925. The ground floor was used as a pharmacy and the upper floor as a dwelling. This building was one of the first pharmacies in Aruba and was known by the name Botica Aruba.

At the time, one of Aruba’s distinguished businessmen, Addison Croes, commissioned the design and construction of this two-story building to Aruba’s most prominent architect, Dada Picus. Just like a few other mansions, the style of the building had been inspired by the Latin-American Neo-Baroque style found in the affluent neighborhoods of cities in Colombia, such as Bogota and Cartagena. Beautiful decorations, balconies with elegant Caribbean-style gingerbread carvings, surround roof balustrades featuring the signs of a pharmacist’s made Botica Aruba stand out.

The building which dates back to the early 1920’s, was a family residence at first. In 1935, Addison Croes and Gustave Nouel, a banker, opened one of the first pharmacies on the island and called it Botica Aruba. Mr. Nouel managed the pharmacy together with a licensed pharmacist, Mr. Steenmeyer (He is seen in this picture): 

The pharmacy was located on the ground floor until 1985. Later, after the building stood empty for years on end, the Monument Fund bought the premises and restored them to their former splendor.

Nouel’s son Charles closed the Botica in 1985 and it was sold in 1991 to become a department store. When this store closed its doors as well, the property remained vacant until the Monument Fund acquired the premises and restored them to their splendor of years gone by.

In 2021 Monuments Fund completed the restoration of this beautiful building.
This monument currently houses KOAL Restaurant on the ground floor.