I’m talking about the Henry Hotel, not the man, whoever Henry is. From San Juan take EDSA going towards Roxas Boulevard. Around two blocks before hitting Roxas Boulevard you turn right into F. B. Harrison. Look at the right side until you see 2680. That’s the street number. Honk your horn. Someone will open the gate and drive down the gravel driveway. You see, it used to be a 1940s compound.
A compound is a group of similar-looking houses on a large property. Each house was rented out though some houses were for the extended family. It was very fashionable in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Our house in Sta. Mesa, where we moved when I was around six, was a compound.
Here I believe they have around eight houses that are very similar and a central big white house where the restaurant is. Downstairs is the restaurant and upstairs is what they call the Owner’s Suites. I was there to meet with friends. Tina had been there many times and invited us to discover the place. I suspect she knew we would love it. She reserved a table on the terrace for us and asked that we meet her there at 5:30 in the afternoon.
I was born in Paco and lived there as a baby then we moved to Roberts, a block down from F. B. Harrison, so I have fond memories of Pasay. I had memories of sitting on the terrace of the Bulakena restaurant and watching Manila’s lovely sunset. I thought that was why the table on the porch was reserved. But we weren’t that close to the sea. And Malu, my other friend, couldn’t stand the heat on the porch so we moved inside.
But we got there early. Trying to avoid the traffic we left San Juan at around 4 p.m. and arrived, surprisingly, at around 4:30 p.m. So we decided to pass the time checking out the houses that are used as stores. One of them is an art gallery owned by an Avellana, nephew of my previous boss. Another is a clothes atelier. Two of them are called Home Stores and they have furniture designed by Eric Paras. I refused to visit the clothes atelier and the furniture sections of the Home Stores for fear of being tempted, though we poked through the other things. I couldn’t resist the collection of bottles. I bought two tiny ones for my beads and a big one for my rice. Now you see why I refuse to look at furniture and clothes? I’m very easy to tempt.
A houseman carried our packages to the car and I walked with him along the gravel drive. There I saw a couple of house cats walking slowly around. This is like a typical Filipino home, I commented. You have cats.
They are stray cats, he said, but they like it here because in the beginning they caught all the big rats and the mice.
Well, these houses are old. I’m sure they had big rats when you started to remodel them. But I love seeing cats roaming around. For me it’s an assurance that the house is without mice.
Then we went and asked for a tour of the bedrooms. I was very enchanted by the houses, now connected with metal doors that had modern leaf patterns. They are also connected with machuca (I think that’s the way it’s spelled) patterned cement tiles. Some of the tiles are original and others are new. One of the suites has a claw-footed bathtub that is new but looked antique. And the bathrooms are deep and don’t need shower curtains and they use octagonal tiles of the era.
I loved these old houses of the ‘40s. They reminded me of our home on Roberts Street. I used to sit on our window sills and put my chubby legs through the grills and swing them back and forth when I was really small, around two or three. We lived on the second floor of the house because the downstairs part had two apartments where two other families lived. Our rooms had wooden floors. Some of the rooms at the Henry Hotel also have wooden floors. But our home was painted cream with a dark green roof and these homes are painted in grey with white shutters. It is genuinely pretty.
And the food provided by Apartment 1B was typically good. If you have a 70-year-old grandmother I think you should bring her to the Henry Hotel. It will give her some sweetly coated nostalgia. She will remember homes she lived in when she was small. There is something extremely charming about the Henry Hotel. If you are looking for a relief from the elections, pack up your family and go there.
You will definitely sigh Oh, Henry, like I did.
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