“The Santos-Andres Ancestral House: Heritage Born Anew” on GMA News Online

It has been awhile since the Urban Roamer has written for another publication or site, but I am happy to announce that my little piece has made it to one of the leading news sites in the country, GMA News Online.

My piece published there is about the Santos-Andres ancestral house, a house which was formerly located along M. Naval Street in Navotas City to a more upland location in the hills of Antipolo, near the Hinulugang Taktak and the Antipolo Cathedral, giving a new lease of life to a house that was endangered from decay and encroaching urbanization in Navotas.

My gratitude to the people at Heritage Conservation Society and the family of Roman Santos for the opportunity given to myself and others to visit this heritage gem up close and know more about its history.

During the tour, we were also treated to some native delicacies that originated from the Malabon-Navotas area as well as from Pampanga, which was where Roman Santos hails from.

In addition to what I wrote in the article, here are a few other facts about the house that I was able to gather:

– The land in Antipolo where the house currently stands is originally much higher. But it was leveled down a bit as a way to get around the height restriction imposed in the village regarding the houses being built there. After all, the house itself is about three storeys high.

– In keeping with the atmosphere of the house, a number of household items found here are antiques, though many of them were not originally from the house but were later acquisitions, bought from various antique shops and other sources.

You can read the full article that appeared on the GMA News Online site right here.

You can also check some additional photos of the house in my Flickr page here.