Postcards from the UP’s past

In this age of email and texting it is rare to receive postcards. The only ones I still get are from friends or relatives traveling abroad. Postcards are still a good way to say, “Wish you were here!” The fact that the piece of cardboard in your hand physically traveled thousands of kilometers lends something special to the message on it.

The fact is that postcards represent special places, and not all destinations one visits merit a postcard. Natural attractions like waterfalls, volcanoes and fabulous tropical sunsets rate high on any traveler’s list. Man-made structures like dams, tall buildings, civic complexes or historic institutions also make for good sales at tourist counters.

Manila used to generate hundreds of thousands of postcards when it was a rave destination in the Orient. Of course the first postcards were from the American armed forces sent to fight the insurgents at the turn of the 20th century. Then, as Manila and the rest of the Philippines developed, the postcards were sent by the thousands who set off to visit the islands by cruise liner and eventually by seaplane.

Aside from the coconuts, carabaos and tribal folk, the most popular postcards (and the ones that I collect) are those of important buildings. One of the consistent subjects in our history of postcards was the University of the Philippines and its numerous buildings and campuses. Postcards of the campus’ buildings were produced as fast as the buildings were built. This indicated how important the state university was to visitors and locals alike.

Lucky was the provincial lad or lass who gained entry into the premier educational institution of the land, so they sent letters and postcards home to tell of their new adventures. The main campus was also right at the heart of modernizing Manila, making the Neo-classic structures some of the first buildings tourists saw after they checked into the Manila Hotel.

The first campus structure to make it on postcards was the Philippine General Hospital built in 1908, the year the state university was founded. The hospital complex was planned ahead in 1904 and integrated into the campus when authorities decided to site the university on a ten-hectare spread of land beside it and bounded by Taft Avenue and Isaac Peral Street (UN Avenue). The style of architecture was a simple derivative of Filipino-Spanish architecture at the time, albeit cast in the modern material of concrete.

The next buildings to make it on the colorized postcards (they were taken in black and white then processed in four colors) were the main university hall, the engineering building and the library. These three were designed by American architect Raph Harrington Doane and Filipino architects Juan Arellano and Tomas Mapua in the more ornate Neo-classic style that was the mode for civic buildings worldwide until right before the Second World War. These campus buildings were contemporary with many structures in Ivy League schools that were expanding at the same time; and they were as well designed.

The PGH and UP campus building postcards were popular postcards printed either in Manila or Chicago until the war. Another UP structure that was immortalized in a postcard before the war was the engineering sundial. The structure was built near the engineering building and the beside the campus’ parade grounds (that today is the site of the Philamlife building). Finally there was a postcard of Baker Hall in Los Baños — the only structure that survived the war.

After the war, the UP still was a key institution that was considered worthy of postcards. From the 1950s comes one that shows the oblation already transferred and placed in front of Quezon Hall at the new site in Diliman, Quezon City. I have another postcard (in black and white of the old chapel designed by Juan Nakpil (demolished after Locsin’s “flying saucer” chapel was built).

The late Fifties and early Sixties mark a change in postcard technology to one that employed full-color photography. From this period, I only have a few postcards. The first is not really a structure of the campus but it was a key project of the government — the atomic reactor. The egg-shaped structure was given a plot carved out of the UP Diliman campus right beside the arboretum. It was designed by Crecensiano de Castro (better known for his antique car collection).

There was another postcard that showed the Diliman campus in the decade I was there — the ’70s. The postcard is of Quezon Hall and the Oblation but with a clean green lawn, which I rather prefer over today’s over-designed but empty reflecting pool (there apparently is not enough money to repair and maintain the water feature built for the 75th anniversary). The last postcard I have is a montage of international style buildings from the ‘60s — the Library, Melchor Hall, as well as the Church of the Holy Sacrifice (by Leandro Locsin).

Finally all these postcards need stamps to reach their addressees. For the university’s 50th anniversary in 1958 a special stamp was issued. I have the first-day cover which features a stamp that has the Oblation for a focal point, back-dropped by a panoramic view of the central campus green from Quezon Hall with Melchor and Palma halls and the Library with an inset of the Carillon on the side.

Today, we have few postcards of the university. Of course, I have not checked the mini-mall at UP Diliman. They may have some left over from the Seventies. I do wish the UP’s charter is changed soon so that the institution can find ways to generate funds without having to kowtow to politicos every year. This is to regain its scholastic stature first, then rescue its many campuses from disrepair and finally to fuel its quest for knowledge and excellence. Hopefully, when this happens, postcards will once again be sent wishing friends and relatives to visit and telling of the pride we should all have in the institutions of our beloved nation.

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If you have any postcard of any campus or building of the UP, I would appreciate it if you can e-mail me a scan at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com. Also, calling all UP Architecture and Landscape Architecture alumni! You are invited to the general alumni homecoming on March 7 at 6 p.m. to be held at the College of Architecture at UP Diliman. This will coincide with the celebration of 52 years of the UP College of Architecture and the University of the Philippines centennial. E-mail inquiries to uparki.home@gmail.com or call the UP Arki at 382-1845.