Santurce () is a highly urbanized, densely populated commercial, residential, cultural, and resort area in Puerto Rico, organized as a barrio of San Juan, the capital city and municipality of the archipelago and island. Situated in the north-center of the San Juan metropolitan area, north of Hato Rey barrio, the central business district of Puerto Rico, east of Old San Juan historic district in San Juan Islet, and west of Isla Verde resort area, it occupies 40 subbarrios or districts, including the affluent Condado, Isla Grande, Miramar, Parque, and Ocean Park in the northwest, and the impoverished Obrero and Las Casas in the southeast. With 69,469 residents as of 2020, its population is higher than 69 of 78 municipalities in Puerto Rico.
Geographically comprising the western half of an island historically known as Cangrejos (''crabs'') for its abundance of crustaceans, Santurce is bordered by San Juan Islet, site of the Old San Juan historic quarter, and San Juan Bay to the west, Isla Verde district and Los Corozos and San José Lagoons to the east, Hato Rey business center and Martin Peña Channel to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north.
In 1773, it was officially established as the defunct municipality of San Mateo de Cangrejos. Its population primarily consisted of cimarrones or sub-Saharan fugitives slaves original to neighboring islands under English, Dutch, and Danish rule, who were granted liberty and land by Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico during the preceding 100 years. In 1862, it was dissolved into its neighboring municipalities. Isla Verde in the east was merged into Carolina as a subbarrio, Hato Rey in the south into Río Piedras as a barrio, and Santurce in the west into San Juan as a barrio.
Santurce was named after Santurtzi in Spain, the birthplace of Count Pablo Ubarri, a 19th-century Basque businessman and politician based in the barrio, who built the San Juan Tramway, the first passenger steam and electric tramway in the main island operating from Old San Juan through Santurce to the Río Piedras district, in 1880. In the 20th century, Santurce grew as a key economic and cultural center of San Juan with an influx of businesses, condominiums, hotels, theaters, museums, and schools, becoming one of the most significant areas in Puerto Rico.
History
16th–18th centuries
The history of the settlement of Santurce is closely linked to that of Old San Juan due to its location as the closest entry point from the Islet of San Juan to the Puerto Rican mainland and for its location between the San Juan Bay and the Atlantic coast. San Antonio Bridge, the first bridge connecting the islet to the main island was built across Condado Lagoon in the 1560s, during a period of infrastructural and military development of San Juan that also saw the edification of its city walls. Fortín San Antonio was also built during this time in order to defend the city from both northeast foreign invaders and land-based indigenous attacks.
The area that would become Santurce was first settled between the end the 16th century and throughout the 17th century by both freed and escaped slaves coming from both rural Puerto Rico and other islands throughout the West Indies. The town of San Mateo de Cangrejos ("Saint Matthew" of the Crabs) was officially founded in 1760 by Basque settlers who formally acquired the land around what are today the subbarrios of San Mateo, Pulguero and Minillas. The area around what is today Isla Grande was also developed during this time with projects such as the Miraflores armory, established as part of military infrastructure developments by Alejandro O'Reilly. Santurce was captured by the British under the command of Ralph Abercromby on April 18, 1797, during the early stages of the 1797 siege of San Juan, but it was later liberated on May 1.
19th century
Santurce saw further urban growth during the early decades of the 19th century thanks to the establishment of the Camino Real, a military road between San Juan and the town of Río Piedras (then called El Roble) built in 1810; this stretch of road now known as Ponce de León Avenue would prove to be of extreme importance in the urban history of the city of San Juan. The town church, San Mateo de Cangrejos of Santurce Parish, would also be established during this time in 1832. The establishment of the telegraph network in 1858 further modernized the town,Gilberto Aponte Torres, San Mateo de Cangrejos: Notas para su Historia (1985) which by 1863 was formally annexed to the municipality of San Juan.
In 1876, an engineer from the port town of Santurtzi in Spain's autonomous Basque Country region known as Pablo Ubarri arrived on the island to help in the construction of a railroad system and a steam tramway between San Juan and the town of Río Piedras through the center of San Mateo de Cangrejos. He was later granted the title of Count of Santurce by the Spanish Crown. With the newly acquired title and influence, the district was renamed after his title, county of Santurce (condado de Santurce), a decision that has caused controversy ever since. The tourist district of Condado (Spanish for 'county') traces its etymology to this title.Cangrejos – Santurce – Authors; Aníbal Sepúlveda, Jorge Carbonell, Centro de Investigaciones CARIMAR, Oficina Estatal de Preservación Histórica. The steamway service developed by the count in 1878 further helped the population of the barrio to considerably grow.Document CF408, Tranvía de la Capital a Río Piedras (Nov 16, 1898), Archivo General de Puerto Rico Other key developments during this time were the construction of a civil hospital in 1885 (today the location of the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico), the establishment of street lighting and the electric grid in 1893, the installation of phone infrastructure in 1897, and the inauguration of both railway service and the Carretera Central linking San Juan to Ponce in 1898.
The Treaty of Paris in 1898 saw the culmination of the Spanish-American War, with Puerto Rico now becoming a colony of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico, finding that the population of Santurce was 5,840.
20th century The United States Army established Camp Las Casas, in the area of Las Casas in 1904. The camp was the main training base of the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry (on January 15, 1899, the military government changed the name of Puerto Rico to Porto Rico and on May 17, 1932, U.S. Congress changed the name back to "Puerto Rico") The Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry was a U.S. Army Regiment which was later renamed the "65th Infantry Regiment". The 65th Infantry Regiment was segregated. However, a separate division called the 375th Regiment enlisted Black soldiers. The base continued in operation until 1946, when it was finally closed. Residencial Las Casas would later be developed on this location."Historia Militar de Puerto Rico"; by Héctor Andrés Negroni; pg. 370; The district of Condado continued to rapidly grow after the construction of Dos Hermanos Bridge in 1910, connecting the district to San Juan Antiguo. This period of population growth brought prosperity to many of the neighborhoods of Santurce with high urbanization in Miramar, Ocean Park, Sagrado Corazón and the formal establishment of a local marketplace, for example, also in 1910. Tourism industry in Puerto Rico is formally born during this time with the establishment of Condado Vanderbilt Hotel in 1917,Flores, Ronald. "New Hotels on the Horizon". (February/March 2009) ¡Qué Pasa!. Puerto Rico Tourism Company. something that would quickly prompt the opening of numerous hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the area of Condado in order to cater to the increasing number of tourists and visitors from overseas.Cangrejos - Santurce - Authors; Aníbal Sepúlveda, Jorge Carbonell, Centro de Investigaciones CARIMAR, Oficina Estatal de Preservación Histórica. (Spanish)
Between 1937 and 1948, Santurce became one of the most vibrant areas of the capital.A. Sepúlveda. Cangrejos: Historia ilustrada de su desarrollo urbano. (1987) p. 45. Numerous museums, art galleries, music venues also opened during this time. The district, notably Miramar and Sagrado Corazón, also experienced an architectural boom as vernacular Criollo style interacted with imported styles such as Art Deco, Prairie School and Spanish Revival. Some of these areas have been designated by the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office as protected historic zones today.At its population peak in 1950, Santurce had a population of 195,007 inhabitants, making it more populated than every other municipality in the island at the time. This figure together with the annexation of Río Piedras a year after, brought the population of the municipality of San Juan to 451,658 by 1960, making it the second largest city in the Caribbean (after Havana) and the 29th largest city in the United States at the time. The population of the district became the most diversified at the time with large numbers of immigrant communities establishing businesses and institutions in the area. For example, the first synagogue in Puerto Rico, Sha'are Zedeck, was established here during this time in 1952 by William Korber, a wealthy Puerto Rican of German descent.The Virtual Jewish History Tour Puerto Rico, Jewish Virtual Library, Retrieved November 12, 2008. Additionally, a large influx of Jewish Cubans also arrived immediately after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. With the establishment of a more robust island-wide roadway infrastructure, Santurce however began to experience a rapid population decline starting in the 1960s decade as large numbers of residents began to move outward from the city and into the newly emerging suburbs of Bayamón, Carolina, Guaynabo, and Levittown, for example. This period also saw a shift in business and commercialization away from Santurce, which before functioned as one of the main urban cores of the city, towards Hato Rey, and its newly developed central business district that is popularly known as the Golden Mile (la Milla de Oro). By the end of the 20th century, Santurce had a population of only 95,000 inhabitants and, with the exceptions of districts such as Condado, Miramar and Ocean Park, was experiencing extreme urban decay.
21st century Despite notable developments such as the Puerto Rico Convention District and the Tren Urbano, early 21st century Santurce saw a continuation of a period of economic decline now coupled with the financial crisis of the local banking and mortgage system. The district however began a period of cosmopolitan revival and economic growth in 2009, as many new local establishments such as bars, clubs and restaurants opened their doors due to the resurging importance of trade and tourism prompted by a decrease in rent which attracted both artists and entrepreneurs to the area. Since then, Santurce began experiencing a new wave of gentrification and is now hailed by many as Puerto Rico's "hipster haven". In 2018, twenty-two murals were painted in and around Santurce to illustrate Santurce's culture and history, which inspired the annual Santurce es Ley arts festival, the largest mural and arts festival in the Caribbean and one of the largest of its kind in Latin America.
Geography
Santurce is located along the north-eastern coast of Puerto Rico. It lies south of the Atlantic Ocean, east of Old San Juan and west of Isla Verde. The district occupies an area of of land and 3.46 (8.96 km2) of water. It is surrounded by six bodies of water: San Juan Bay, Condado Natural Lagoon, the Martín Peña Channel, San José Lagoon, Los Corozos Lagoon, and the Atlantic Ocean with its respective beaches and estuaries.