Binondo-San Nicolas Tales 03: Cemeteries-turned-Schools?

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For thousands of students of the two public schools situated in San Fernando Street, San Nicolas District in Manila, Pedro Guevara Elementary School (PGES) and Marcela Agoncillo Elementary School (MAES), they believe their schools were once places for eternal rest of those who passed away. Since I have neighbors and cousins who studied in PGES, so I’ll just focus on that particular school.

I was told of numerous creepy stories of apparitions of spirits especially when darkness bites the vicinity. Several boy scouts who camped in PGES for some time have also accounts of supernatural activities occurring inside the school such as sounds of footsteps, banging of doors and the like. They always relate these happenings to the supposed “past” of the public school, which is according to them, a public cemetery.

Binondo-San Nicolas Tales 02: Former Names of Several Streets

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The renowned novel Noli Me Tangere by Dr. Jose P. Rizal mentions some names of old Manila streets like “Calle Anloague”, “Calle Sacristia” and “Calle San Jacinto” which surrounds Binondo Church up to the present time. Dr. Rizal did not invent these street names, in fact, he was familiar of (or at least, had heard of) some of the Binondo driveways in the 19^th century.

When our Filipino teacher was discussing a part of the novel mentioning the location of Kapitan Tiago’s house in a certain “Calle Anloague”, I wondered which particular street Rizal was pertaining to. As more former street names popped out from the novel, curiosity struck and until now, it is yet to be satisfied. Well, if not for my Filipino teacher, I would’ve not known that Calle Anloague is the current Juan Luna Street, Calle Sacristia is the Ongpin Street, and Calle San Jacinto is T. Pinpin Street.

Binondo-San Nicolas Tales 01: Introduction

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Just recently, I found some old Manila maps uploaded on Wikimedia Commons to search for my alma mater’s original location year 1899. Since they are all centuries-old, the copyright of the photos are now expired; so there wouldn’t be any copyright issues if I download them to my own computer and share it with you through this blog.

The maps have revealed so many details to me, and if I were to share all of them to you, one blog post will not be enough. Thus, the birth of Joe’s Mix of Tops new “blog series” Binondo-San Nicolas Tales.