XCII. Tall Tales from Taal, Part Seven: Another Montenegro House

After a lunch as filling as the one that we had just had, it was probably a healthy idea to quickly visit at least one more ancestral house in Taal.  A few blocks away from the Montenegro House beside the Basilica was another Montenegro House, not too distant from the two Villavicencio Houses that we had earlier also visited.

It was a typical Taal house from the middle part to the second half of the 19^th century, with a Gothic style main door in the middle bay of the façade.  The ground floor had latterly been put to adaptive reuse, as evidenced by the signage above the doorway, clearly readable as “Clinica Tenorio.”

We were told that the second floor had been renovated and was now a house museum, open to visitors.  Passage to it was not via the main staircase though, but through the service entrance towards what would have been the original kitchen and dining areas.

And yet somehow, all roads lead to the main entrance hall. A large and unusually-styled and –configured “ambassador” living room furniture set takes up most of the space in this antesala.

A latter-day Art Deco-styled and minimalist rendition of a family altar, perhaps post-war, also stands elsewhere in this hall.

From the antesala, the main living room may be entered via this wide doorway, now sadly missing its presumed original double doors. Happily, it is still topped by a large and elaborate calado (tracery) transom panel

which looks like this upclose and from the opposite (sala) side.

Although many areas were closed off, it’s a fair conjecture that this house was laid out almost identically to the two Villavicencio Houses.  And from its presumed age, I’m guessing that like Casa Villavicencio, there too was a closeable volada on the side of the sala facing the street below, but that’s now been opened up and merged with the rest of the living room.

But like in both Casa Villavicencio and the Villavicencio Wedding Gift House, one could access the (or a) master bedroom from either of these identical double doors, Gothic-styled and calado-topped, directly from the living room.

As they were closed, I content myself with further photos of these admirable specimens of indigenized Neo-Gothic craftsmanship in wood. What homeowner of yesterday or today would not be proud of even one of these – here, a solo shot of the door on the left

and a closer shot of the very finely-carved and -pierced transom.

Before moving on, I take a shot of the view from inside the sala looking towards the well-populated antesala, with the unfortunately unremarkable dining room in the far background.

I then make my way back downstairs and outside the house via the main entrance

before realizing that it’s indeed sealed off and is currently an untidy-looking dead end.  A pity, since the balustrades seem to be generally in good shape and the balusters appear to be complete.

While this Montenegro House had apparently just been renovated at the time that I visited in September 2003, there were obviously still a few things that needed to be worked on before it could be a full-fledged Taal house museum.  Not only was the main staircase not yet passable, but, as the photos show, the rooms were also not yet faithfully furnished and decorated in a manner befitting the house's presumed original incarnation.

If I get to go to Taal again, I’ll remember to inquire if it will be possible to visit this house once more and see if things have progressed somewhat.

(Continued here.)

Originally published on 11 October 2009.  All text and photos copyright ©2009 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Original comment:

overtureph wrote on Nov 6, '09 An awesome tour de force of Taal!