Monuments Lost
Location: Camacuri Built: 1943 Status: demolished The founding of Club Caribe stemmed from an initiative of athletes. During the WW-II years, Dr. Eloy Arends donated a plot of land free of charge to Club Caribe as a sports field, next to a leasehold plot where they built the new clubhouse. The Club Caribe clubhouse was [...]
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Location: L.G. Smith Blvd. Opened: 1955 Closed down: 1990's Bali, Aruba’s floating restaurant Once a house boat in an Amsterdam canal, it became a landmark in the Oranjestad harbor. The restaurant was moored at the short pier just across from the Harbor Office. The ‘old’ Bali was established in 1955 by Willem ‘Bill’ Strijland, a Dutch-Indonesian [...]
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Location: L.G. Smith Blvd. Built: early 1940's Opened: 1947 During World War II American troops came to Aruba to protect the island during the time that the Netherlands were occupied by the Germans. To house these troops, a number of buildings on the waterfront of Oranjestad were constructed. They included Officers' Quarters, barracks, a mess [...]
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Location: Wilhelminastraat/Oranjestraat Built: first half 20th century Status: demolished On Wilhelminastraat there used to be several large houses, locally known as cunucu (countryside) townhouses ('stadscunucuhuizen'). One of them belonged to Lieutenant Governor ('Gezaghebber') Lindoro Kwarts. Lt. Governor Lindoro Kwarts and his spouse The house was demolished to make place for Paris Restaurant, still there.
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Location: Nassaustraat/Kruisweg Built: 1927 Status: covered up S.N. Ecury (known as 'Dundun') was a prominent businessman in the first half of the previous century. He owned two of the most beautiful mansions on the island, the Green House and the White House on Schelpstraat. He was Consul-General of Haiti and Italy and dealer of Ford [...]
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Location: Palm Beach Built: 1941-'42 Status: demolished The Aruba Country Club, a community center organized by the Jewish population of the island, was opened August 30, 1942. It was located near Palm Beach in a grove of hundreds of coconut palms It had a dance floor, a bar, a library, billiard tables, and a playground [...]
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Location: Nassaustraat/Waterweg, Oranjestad Built: 1932 Status: demolished Fuchs & Gelbstein Aruba's first department store, on Nassauastraat (now Caya Betico), was founded in 1932 by Adolf Fuchs, Israel Gelbstein, and Haïm Gottfried, who soon sold his share to his partners. The storefront was completely destroyed in the major fire that ravaged Nassaustraat in 1948, but it [...]
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Location: Pos Chiquito Period built: early 1930's Status: demolished The Lido Country Club stood on the shore of the Spanish Lagoon at the Pos Chiquito side, next to the bridge which was built in 1930. It may have belonged to the L.W.V. Water Plant which was built across the lagoon in 1932. Very little is [...]
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Location: Balashi Period built: 1928 - 1932 Status: demolished Category: Industrial Heritage The first water plant of Aruba. The desalination history of Aruba started more than a hundred years ago with the production of processed water around 1903 at the Gold Mining Company (1899-1916). Even that early, it was obvious that the groundwater and rainwater [...]
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Location: South-east of Oranjestad, on Dakota aloe fields Year Built: 1950 Monument status: Demolished In 1937 an Air-traffic Radio Station was established and this became the first passenger handling building on the island. The building and the runway were located south-east of Oranjestad, on a terrain that was part of the Government aloe vera fields [...]
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