From Binondo to an exclusive Makati village, the Hidalgo-Lardizabal-Sandoval house carries more than a century of heritage
SEEN FROM OUTSIDE, the house looks like many of its neighbors?fenced in and grilled, a modest bungalow in a Makati subdivision. It was built in the 1960s when the area was developed by Ayala. The house is a prime example of the well-built and well-maintained residences in the upscale neighborhood.

But what is not apparent from the outside is the understated elegance of the interiors?beautifully worked wooden floors, tastefully selected furniture, paintings, various collectibles and other works of art. For the house is a virtual repository of the memories of four generations of a storied family that traces its ancestry to the Hidalgos of Boac, Marinduque, and the Sandovals of Palawan, among others, and their descendants.

The story begins in Magdalena Street, Binondo, in 1898, when the first republic was being born. Luis Hidalgo and Eulalia Lardizabal built their house to be near their children who were then studying in Manila. Conchita, one of their daughters, married Claudio Sandoval, and the couple bought out her siblings, later remodeling the house with the help of architect Juan Nakpil, using ipil wood from Palawan, a gift from Claudio?s father Vicente Sandoval, who was then governor of that province. The Magdalena house was rented out after the war, and eventually sold, with its hardwood stored for future use.

Hardwood recycled

In 1965, Conchita built this house in Makati, using the salvaged ipil wood for the exterior sidings, wide ipil planks with molave borders for the front door and the flooring of the vestibule and sala, and balayong?among the rarest of Philippine hardwood?for the flooring of the dining area. The bedroom floors use narra and yakal. Many of the furniture?aparadores, tables, chairs, as well as other furnishings and accents, came from the old house as well, complemented by later purchases and commissioned pieces that are consistent with the look and feel of the house.

Later, Conchita built a new house in Laguna where she spent the rest of her retirement years, and left this house to one of her daughters. For a long period, the house was left vacant, or to the tender mercies of a series of tenants.

In 2009, the house went through a general cleanup and refurbishing. Previous ?improvements? that violated subdivision rules had to be removed, along with impractical and aesthetically unpleasant ones. A large room was opened up to connect the front and rear portions of the residence, with ventilator panels added as a decorative touch.

Tats Manahan, an expert in colors and finishes who trained in Italy, helped with the selection of appropriate colors for the house. She worked on a historical palette of red for the living and dining room, yellow and green for the family room, parchment for the front bedroom, and so on. It was a task that she took on with great relish, even if it took more than two months of work, and more than three layers of paint, to finish.

Virtual gallery

The house is a virtual gallery, if not museum, with everything from the unsigned works of unknown artists depicting scenes of Boac in colonial times, to the masterpieces of National Artists, as well as those by other masters and younger artists. Each one holds its place in this masterfully crafted and tastefully decorated home.

Gracing various parts of the house are portraits by Gig de Pio and National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, as well as commissioned copies of the portraits of family patriarchs and matriarchs; and representative works of Onib Olmedo, Rodolfo Ragodon, Ral Arrogante, Jose Blanco, Julius Samson, Charlie Co, Rey Zipagan, Sofronio Mendoza, Marcia Sandoval, Alfredo Aquilizan, Yusof Zulfiki, Juvenal Sanso, Angelito Antonio and Jeanne Tan.

?Tagal? by National Artist Bencab, housed in a solid kamagong frame by Omeng Esguerra, hangs by serious-looking chains, is at the place of honor in the family room. It?s one of the first things a visitor will notice upon entering the vestibule.

Two small works from the early 1970s by National Artist Ang Kiukok?a still life and a fearsome cat?are found in the kitchen.

Distinguished furniture

The furniture and furnishings are no less distinguished. The dining table base is the original from the Magdalena house, with the top reconstructed from a wide ipil slab with molave frame procured by the late Viring de Asis.

Manahan contributed a painted low table from a recent Yuchengco Museum exhibit on Mantones de Manila and contemporary art works inspired by this famous Manila export to Spain.

A Batangas I altar table made of tindalo with kamagong inlay features rococo elements, indicating that it was made in the 18th century, and another altar table featuring a curved stretcher and lion feet representative of 17th-century design are found in the family room, along with select specimens of the santo makers? art.

The four-poster bed found in the middle bedroom was the bed of Eulogia Alino Hidalgo, grandmother of Conchita. The legs were cut, and the bed itself made narrower for Conchita?s use, only to be later restored in both height and width?perhaps an appropriate symbol of the vicissitudes that families go through in centuries of flux.

Numerous religious images (?santos?) are proof of a long tradition of exquisite wood carving in various parts of the Philippines, but most notably Bohol, Marinduque, Bicol and Pampanga. Most noteworthy is an ivory crucified Christ set on a kamagong cross, with the corpus carved forward rather than to one side, described as ?identical in style with 17th- and 18th-century crucifixes in the Museo del Virreinato in Tepozotlan near Mexico City.?

A rare Nstra. Señora de Guadalupe with a flat back is a relieve meant to be mounted on a wall. An old electric Singer sewing machine owned by Conchita has been converted into a lamp.

Homecoming

Dr. Sandra Sandoval Laya, proud product of UP Medicine and PGH, and her husband, lawyer Mario Zinampan, are newly returned to the country after years of study and specialization in the United States. She finished her residency in internal medicine and gastroenterology through a fellowship at the University of Missouri. They are the fourth-generation residents of this beautifully restored house.

Due to their long years abroad, they insist on cleaning up after themselves.

For Sandra, her return to this house is a double homecoming. She remembers how she used to hide stuff in the house as a child, and that many of her favorite things have a found a new lease on life in it after years in storage.