The Great PR-STX Manhole Connection

John F. McKeon

To an observant historian the most commonplace objects can be the key to an intriguing history. One such object is a forged iron manhole cover I came across on Company Street in downtown Christiansted. 

I spied this prominent hunk of iron slab laid flat near the gutter on a ramble in Christiansted that took me along East Street and down Company Street. While pausing at the corner for a passing car, I spotted this unusual piece of history that had survived decades of punishing Caribbean storms and flooded streets. But it was the name stamped on this solid slab of iron that started my mind to wander: “Fundicion Cubano.”

There are apparently a number of these iron “pit lids” that run along Company Street and more than likely on streets all across the island of St. Croix. They were set in place decades ago and brought over from the foundry Fundicion Cubano, a Puerto Rican ironworks company. The hidden story, to a historian like myself, is not particularly that of the manhole covers that do form a quasi-interesting connection between Puerto Rico and St. Croix, but that of the owner, Antonio Ferre Bacallao, of the company, Fundicion Cubano, and his remarkable family 

Fundicion Cubano was founded in 1918, it served the sugar and coffee industries by fabricating irrigation systems and machinery for crushing cane, along with railroad tracking systems and bridges. Its foundry, the largest in the Antilles Island chain, was located at the Port of Ponce docks in Puerto Rico, and thus conveniently located to service and repair shipping vessels that traversed the Caribbean Sea. In the early to mid- twentieth century Fundicion Cubano began the manufacture of manhole covers. At one time the foundry employed more than 700 people but after a highly successful decades-long run it closed its doors in 1973.

The truly interesting part of the story, at least to my historically-bent mind, is the legacy of the company’s founder and his family.   

Mr. Bacallao was born in Cuba. He was the son of Mauricio Ferre Perotin, a French engineer who had labored on the construction of the Panama Canal. Antonio himself founded the Puerto Rican cement company formerly known as Ponce Cement, which became the first Puerto Rican company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Ferre also established the Museo de Arte de Ponce with a starter collection of twenty-four works of art. Currently, the Museum has a collection of 4,500 magnificent works of art and is known for its collection of Baroque, Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian paintings, as well as Puerto Rican and Latin American art. The Konrad Conservation Center of Museo de Arte de Ponce, established in 1979, is a leader in art conservation in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean. 

As impressive as the history of the various companies are, that is really secondary to the history of the family. Antonio’s son, Luis A. Ferre was elected Governor of Puerto Rico in 1969 and served until 1973. His daughter, Isolina Ferre, a nun, known as the “Mother Teresa of Puerto Rico” spent thirty years working as a missionary throughout Puerto Rico and the United States. Sister Isolina Ferre established the Center that would later be called “Centros Sor Isolina Ferre” and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Most notably, under Antonio’s son Jose A. Ferre’s leadership, along with brothers Luis, Carlos and Herman, Puerto Rico Iron Works, was the first company in the Caribbean to provide employee benefits, a benefit that would not be enacted by the Puerto Rican Legislature until many years later. The Ferre’s also institutionalized the Christmas bonus, to offset yearly cost-of-living increases, that made life easier for their workers during difficult financial times. Their company was also the first to provide a company pension plan and financial aid to families in the event a worker became incapacitated  or died. The company began a minimum wage policy of its own and a standard eight-hour work day, long before federal law considered such societal advances.

In 1970, Antonio Luis Ferre, purchased El Dia Newspaper from his father, Luis, and moved its operations from Ponce to San Juan, where the regional publication was relaunched nationally as El Nuevo Dia, becoming the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico. It is currently considered the Territory’s newspaper of record. 

This progressive family was clearly ahead of its time. They built a well-run financially sound business with a willingness to share their wealth with their workers. They were people who valued their workers and recognized the importance of balancing production, consumption and fairness.

All of this remarkable history came rolling off the investigative area of my mind from a downward glance as I was stopped at a crosswalk. It caused me to do a little research into a manhole cover that just happened to have an intriguing name. That glance also allowed me to tie together manhole covers that were manufactured in Puerto Rico, shipped over by boat, and set in their rightful place on the streets of St. Croix. 

I guess If we are willing to look hard enough, sometimes small discoveries reveal stories that are just waiting for us to set them free.

John F. McKeon lives on St. Croix for six months of the year and in Southampton, NY for six months. He is a noted historian. Phi Alpha Theta History National Honor Society, Alumnus Trinity College Dublin, History and Humanities. Class and Capstone Society of Virgin Islands Historians.