Last week, we received a message from our dear friend and writer, Nikki Rivera Gomez, offering a rare glimpse into the storied past of our City Hall as it celebrates its centennial this year. His anecdote provides a more intimate appreciation of the landmark—moving beyond the concrete and stone to the personal lineages that built it.
Nikki shared these reflections:
“I recently came across an intriguing post regarding our City Hall and its architect, Juan Arellano. Juan was the father of my Tito Oscar, who was married to my father’s sister, Pomona. It was the elder Juan who designed the now-vanished post-colonial Arellano mansion in San Juan, Metro Manila, where we spent childhood days visiting our cousins. While Juan shaped our skylines, Oscar Arellano went on to pioneer the OB Montessori school system in the Philippines. It is a small but meaningful slice of personal history.”
We are grateful to Nikki for this gem of information, which lends greater depth to the City Hall narrative. Beyond the blueprint, the true allure of history lies in the people behind the craftsmanship and the cultural circumstance of their era.
For a century, City Hall has stood as a resilient sentinel, witnessing the evolving dramas and triumphs of Davao. It remains unyielding; no earthquake or typhoon has yet compromised its foundations. While the building has seen minor structural refinements over the decades, its original silhouette remains untouched, standing firm and unexpanded even as the city around it surged into a metropolis.
Completed in 1926 as a Municipal Building, the structure predates Davao’s formal transition to cityhood. Although President Manuel L. Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 51 on October 16, 1936, the charter was not inaugurated until March 1, 1937. This latter date is now immortalized as the city’s foundation day.
The building was conceived during the American colonial period, an era that birthed a unique architectural dialect in the Philippines—one that harmonized Western classical grandeur with the necessities of a tropical climate. The identity of the hall is inextricably linked to Juan M. Arellano, a titan of 20th-century Filipino architecture. A pensionado who honed his craft at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Drexel University, Arellano was a virtuoso of Neoclassical and Art Deco forms. While he is celebrated for masterpieces like Manila’s Metropolitan Theater, his genius reached Mindanao through the Davao City Hall. The structure exemplifies the American Neoclassical tradition, defined by its symmetrical facade and a sense of civic permanence designed to command respect and dignity.
The 1920s construction marked Davao’s metamorphosis from a rugged frontier into a burgeoning economic powerhouse. Though the hall suffered significant damage during the liberation in 1945, the city recognized its peerless value and restored it in 1947, meticulously adhering to Arellano’s original vision.
In 2012, the City Hall was officially designated a National Historical Site by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). As we approach the centennial, the City’s Office of Arts, Culture, and Heritage is currently finalizing the commemorative festivities. We eagerly anticipate the official briefing on how Davao will honor this monumental milestone in our collective history.
