PUT into good use. La Casita Mercedes bed and breakfast (below left) was built in 1939. At the right is the Coronado House, a bahay na bato (stone house) that dates back to the Spanish era.

Makati City is known as the financial capital of the country replete with skyscrapers and modern buildings, but in the midst of the hustle and bustle of this business enclave are a number of old houses, particularly in the famed area of Poblacion.

Tucked in the city’s concrete jungle are at least five heritage houses, three of which are from the American era and one from the Spanish colonial period.

Located near the corner of J.P. Rizal and A. Bonifacio streets in the area called Tawiran (since it is where people cross the Pasig River going to Hulo in Mandaluyong and vice versa) is the riverside Coronado House.

This heritage house dates back to the Spanish period and is perhaps the only extant bahay na bato (stone house) of that size in the city.

Although the second level of the facade, which used to be of wood, has already been altered with the addition of concrete walls, evident still is the first floor made of adobe with doors made of hardwood and, typical of that period, its zaguan (passageway leading from the front door to the central patio), and azotea at one end of the second level.

In the zaguan, two flights of stairs made from black and white cement tiles and wood connect with the second level and the back where stone stairs lead to an arched opening in the middle.

Interesting features at its back wall are two rectangular peepholes probably used to observe and check people on the river aside from being utilized for ventilation.

Remnants of its stone perimeter fence can still be gleaned at the back although it has already been walled up.

The ownership of this house has been passed a number of times, and it is currently owned by a Chinese businessman.

Not far from this edifice, on J.P. Rizal Street is the Tolentino House, an American period home of concrete and wood.

This riverside house looks derelict, but its charm can still be glimpsed through its Art Deco grills mounted on the second-floor windows.

Right beside the Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge also on A. Bonifacio Street is the Cu-Unjieng House.

This edifice used to be the country house of Guillermo Cu-Unjieng, the Chinese-Filipino businessman who founded in 1906 the Philippine First Insurance Company, touted to be the first non-life insurance company in the Philippines among other firms.

It has main doors at the first level and the second floor accessible by two flights of stairs flanking the veranda which is a later addition.

Constructed before 1918, this is one of at least three houses of Cu-Unjieng, who also owned homes on Hormiga and General Solano Streets in Binondo and two in his native China.

His wife was Dominga Coronado Ayala (not related to the Ayalas of today), a resident of San Pedro Macati, the old name of the city.

Located on Ilaya Street is another heritage house owned by the Brillantes family.

This two-story abode mostly of wood was constructed during the American period and is an architectural landmark in that part of the Poblacion.

This house exudes the typical American colonial house architecture reminscent in the still extant houses of that period in Sampaloc, Manila.

At the corner of Fermina and Enriquez streets stands another American era house that has been restored and repurposed into a bed and breakfast facility.

This two-story wooden house, built in 1939, is now the La Casita Mercedes, a good example of adaptively reusing a heritage structure in a fast-changing Makati economic landscape.

ON J.P. Rizal Street is the Tolentino House (left), the riverside American period home that features Art Deco grills on the second-floor windows. San Pedro Macati

In the mid-19th century, San Pedro Macati was noted to have a Jesuit casa parroquial, jail and more than a thousand houses.

On the banks of the Pasig River used to stand some of these houses, which were constructed of cal y canto construction and owned by both the Spaniards and mestizos.

Macati also had big factories of “ladrillo, teja and baldosas” which were being supplied to Manila.

The town had abundant rice production and a bit of sugar with other industries such as cord manufacture and pottery making.

Its church, constructed by the Jesuits in 1620, was being served then by a secular priest.