Humacao — Puerto Rico Historic Buildings Drawings Society

Residencia Pereyó López

House Pereyó Lopez
125 Font Martelo Street
Humacao, Puerto Rico
Designed by Valines Francisco Cofresi (1935)

The Pereyó López residence is a "bungalow" type house in the style called “Prairie “. The “Prairie " style is best represented in Puerto Rico by a group of residences built by architect Antonin Nechodoma. Nechodoma received the direct influence of the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The “Prairie” design was considered at the time as a perfect style for the Island. It maintained the traditional style of tropical architecture features such as balconies, terraces, galleries, shutters, French doors and windows, ceilings in water, among other, while representing American modernity. The House Pereyó López is a fine example of the local adaptation of this foreign style on the island.

The residence was designed by Francisco Valines Cofresi, an architect working in the early twentieth century. Like many architects of that time in Puerto Rico, Valines had graduated from a program of architectural correspondence study offered by the 'International Correspondence School "in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Through the mail the student did not only received training but also ideas about the architecture that was developing in the U.S. At this time Wright's influence was widespread and Valines had access to copies of works of Wright that were built by Nechodoma in Humacao. These influences are reflected in the design of the house Pereyó López.

Largely this style incorporated and reinforced traditional and vernacular, such as the use of balconies and “verandahs" or galleries tastes. Also introduced important innovations in the architectural repertoire of the Island in particular this architecture was adopted by prominent families, to the extent that these abandoned urban areas to settle in the surrounding villages. So items such as "port cochere" to park the car, a symbol of status and modernity, is perhaps the quintessential representative of residential architecture of this class element.

The low , wide and extended horizontally home, the use of cement , glass windows with drapes , geometric composition of spaces , use of columns express the social status of the owners through the exterior facade.

The house belonged to Hon. Luis Pereyó y Rodríguez born November 5, 1900, who served as Judge of the District Court Humacao between the decades of the 30s and 60s, and his wife Palmira Pereyó López. Their children were Pereyó Sonia López (1927), Palmira Pereyó López (1929), Luis Antonio Pereyó López (1931), and Manuel Gabriel Pereyó López (1933).