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2012, October 5.  Manila Hotel Centenary

Litho Offset.  Amstar Company, Inc.  Perf 14

Se-tenant Blocks of 4, Sheets of 40 (4 x 10)

               

Se-tenant Blocks of Four     (37,500)

   7p  Facade of Manila Hotel

   7p  Maynila Ballroom

   7p  MacArthur Suite

   7p  Grand Lobby

 

Designer:  Rogelio Geronimo, Public Relations and Corporate Communications, Manila Hotel

Design Coordinators:  Martha Herrera, Manila Hotel;  Elenita D.L. San Diego

 

First Day Covers:  Manila

 

      

 

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MANILA HOTEL - 100th ANNIVERSARY

 

When the United States took over the Philippine Islands from the Spanish in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley began Americanizing the former Spanish colony. In 1900 he appointed Judge William Howard Taft to head the Philippine Commission to evaluate the needs of the new territory. Taft, who later became the Philippines' first civilian Governor-General, decided that Manila, the capital, should be a planned town. He hired as his architect and city planner Daniel Hudson Burnham, who had built Union Station and the post office in Washington. In Manila, Mr. Burnham had in mind a long wide, tree-lined boulevard along the bay, beginning at a park area dominated by a magnificent hotel. To design the hotel Taft hired William Parsons, a New York architect, who envisioned an impressive, but comfortable hotel, along the lines of a California mission, but grander.  The original design was an H-shaped plan that focused on well-ventilated rooms on two wings, providing grand vistas of the harbor, the Luneta, and Intramuros. The top floor was, in fact, a large viewing deck that was used for various functions, including watching the American navy steam into the harbor.

During World War II, the hotel was occupied by Japanese troops, and the Japanese flag was flown above the walls for the entirety of the war. The hotel survived the bombing of Manila and was later reconstructed.

The political party of Ferdinand Marcos held its convention at the Manila Hotel before the February 1986 presidential election, and Corazon Aquino delivered a speech at the hotel that was a turning point in the campaign. 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Hotel

• Tourism

Articles by Dr. Ngo Tiong Tak

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