Architecture, Memories,
Havana Interiors
Julia Wadsworth
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In 1923 one of Havana’s wealthy political
leaders commissioned one of his servants to have a house built.
The house would be three stories tall with eleven bedrooms, an
attic, a cellar, a porch, two libraries (one on the upper and
lower levels), a main hall with Carrara floors and stairs, a salon,
garage, servant’s quarters, and a surrounding garden. When
the house was completed the man decided he didn’t want it
and sold it to a young millionaire. The woman who bought the house
lived there until seven years ago, 1995, when she died.
Before the woman died, some government officials
approached her about her house. Because supplies were so expensive
and hard to come by the house had become very run down. The structure
is located in a nice part of the city, and the government wanted
to take the house. Because there was no real reason they could
seize the house and nationalize it, or maybe because the woman
was well known and could have caused problems if they had seized
her house, the officials had been sent to talk to her about taking
the house. The woman said she was willing to trade in her house
for a smaller home with three bedrooms, in a similar neighborhood,
some place where she could have privacy and the comforts of a
nice house. And she wanted some money. The officials refused her
request.
When the woman died her daughter inherited the house.
Government officials also approached her, and she had similar
demands, a three-bedroom home and some money. She was also refused.
The current owner has also been approached by officials;
however, this time not only to make her an offer, but to warn
her that she can not trade the house, she can not refurbish it,
she can not allow people to go in the attic for security reasons,
and she can not marry a foreigner. It appears that the government
sees no reason to take the house, since soon the conditions of
the building will be unlivable and they will be able to take it
then. The building is big enough that the woman would not want
to give it up for a smaller space; she has a large enough family
to need a house this size. In the meantime, keeping the woman
from fixing up the house will speed up the deterioration process.
Several months later a foreigner knocked on the
woman’s door to make her a business proposition. At first
the man offered her $25,000 for her house. She told him she could
not sell the house. He raised the bid thinking that she was refusing
because it wasn’t enough money. This time he offered $50,000,
but her answer was the same. He then made a very elaborate offer.
The man suggested that he marry the woman and lease the house
from her for ten years; they would go to a lawyer and sign all
the papers to made the lease legal. He told her that she could
live in the upper story of the house, and that he would take only
the downstairs; then, after the ten year period, the house would
not only be restored, it would be hers again, and he would give
her a million dollars and a divorce. Again, the woman tried to
explain, “I can not sell the house, they won’t let
me sell the house.”
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