During the olden days, Escolta was the shopping capital of the rich and the privileged Filipinos. Going back in time during the early 20th century, a casual tourist in Manila will find in Escolta all the luxurious bazaars: Heacock's, La Estrella del Norte, Oceanic, and Beck's, to name a few. They are all gone now, replaced by more modern edifices, now occupied mostly by banks and fast food stores. Yet Escolta still exist, only its past splendor is gone.
It was also in the Escolta where the first Ice Cream parlor was established(Clarke's Ice Cream), the first cinema house was founded (Cinematografo), and the very first electric cable car was installed (the Trambiya). It was indeed the classic old Manila of cobblestones and beautiful promenades.
Yesterday, I was browsing through my collection of century old photographs, and I came across some very old pictures of the Escolta from the early years of the American occupation. The photos look old and worn, black and white and sepia, all a distant witness to a time that will never come back.
Looking at the old Escolta pictures below can evoke nostalgic memories of the yesteryears when life in Manila was simpler and gay, when everything seemed to happen one moment at a time. The pictures became a virtual time machine, enabling us to visit the old Escolta as if it were just here and now. I will probably never know who shot these pictures. But they served well the nostalgic soul inside me.
Today, I walked in Escolta to shoot some pictures of Escolta to replicate the photos taken 100 years earlier , and maybe 100 years from now, a youthful visitor to this blog will find my pictures of old Escolta comparable to the old ones I admire now.
Escolta circa 1900s (anonymous photographer)
1930s (anonymous photographer)
Early 1940s(anonymous photographer). I just noticed that street parking was already in practice during this time. The increase in car population was probably unexpected by then building owners, who did not provide parking lots for their clients. Indeed, there were no leveled parking lots in Manila during the American occupation. The streets therefore became the temporary stations of parked vehicles. After the war, the car industry boomed, and the numerous automobiles created the first traffic jams in the Philippines.Meanwhile, here are my photographs of the present-day Escolta:
This is the view from the Sta.Cruz Church. The old Regina bulilding still stands up to this day, a vestige of the old times gone by.
The Escolta viewed from the opposite direction. Note the Sta. Cruz Church belfry on the background.
Old Shoeshine station that still exist up to this day in Escolta
Escolta street sign
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