Villaroman Mansion (Parañaque)

 mansion / manor house / villa, historical building

1930s

The mansion in it's original two-storey structure, was built. Anecdotal reports claim that the house was commissioned by Antonio Melian y Pavia, third Count of Peracamps, and his bride Margarita Zóbel de Ayala. However, no records were left about its first owners, but its architectural legacy is credited today to National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil

1941-1945

During the Battle of Manila in 1945, the bayside house was used as the temporary headquarters of Lt. Gen. Joseph Swing & ROTC officers in Parañaque. While most of the neighboring areas were destroyed & bombed, including the military airbase Nichols Field, the mansion surprisingly survives the Battle of Manila.

1946

The compound, which originally featured a 12-feet deep pool, was used as the interim site for the war-torn Manila Polo Club before its relocation to Makati.

1950s-1980s

The Villaroman family, headed by their patriarch Dr. Francisco Villaroman, a surgeon & philanthropist, purchased the mansion in the 1950s as second owners. For more than three decades, the mansion became home for three generations of their family - from Dr. Villaroman and his wife, with their four children, and later their grandchildren from each. By the 1960s, Dewey Boulevard renamed to Roxas Boulevard in honor of President Manuel Roxas. In the 1970s, First Lady Imelda Marcos, with the Public Estate Authority, initiated the reclamation of 3000 hectares of land in Manila Bay, forever changing the landscape of Manila, Pasay & Parañaque.

1980s-2004

The Villaroman Family - for personal reasons - left the mansion, subjecting it to time and ruin.

2004-2018

The Lhuillier family acquired the mansion and its 1.3 hectare property in 2004. By ca. 2010s, two vintage planes were parked on the exteriors, reminiscent of the area's vicinity as an airfield , and now the site of Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Formal restoration of the mansion - guided by Interior Designer Miguel Rosales - began in 2015. The restoration of the nearly century-old mansion and its components would take three years to complete.

2019 - present

At the beginning of 2019, the mansion was finally opened to the public as an arts and events center dubbed Palacio de Memoria, a homage to the memories and history it holds.