Since the 16th century, the house at Manzanares 25, in La Merced, has been standing. Its walls, which have survived countless earthquakes and floods, a harsh conquest, a long viceroyalty, a war of independence, two fleeting empires, a revolutionary conflict and a handful of republics, earned the undisputed official recognition as the oldest house/room in the city. Today, after centuries of use and disuse, Manzanares 25 shines again. No longer as a house, but as a children's cultural center and a museum in its own right.
This building in La Merced was a dwelling house since Tenochtitlán. It preserves its integrity of stone, tezontle, quarry and stucco, in the novo-Hispanic style, and its distribution has the Mesoamerican essence. Its 12 rooms surrounding a central courtyard have suffered more than what has been written about this city.
It has been more than eight years since the Fideicomiso del Centro Histórico began restoring it. The objective was to create a site museum that would disseminate and preserve the value of the building, and also a cultural center that would offer drawing, gastronomy, music, film and literature workshops for local children. And so it happened...
The value of Manzanares 25 is incalculable. Not only as a historic structure it has a unique place in the architectural memory of the city, but under its new purpose, it acquires an active value as an epicenter that serves as a socio-cultural counterweight in an area of high marginalization, where child exploitation is a daily reality.
Buildings have memory, they acquire it by their condition. The activity that takes place within its space is the essence that permeates its evolution. It seems that what was once a house never ceases to be a house; perhaps the only difference is that now it is a common house, with its doors wide open for hundreds of children to make it their home.
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