When the Aranetas first got hold in 1952 of what was then a wide empty tract of land along what was then known as Highway 54, (that’s EDSA as it was called before) they envisioned the place what was soon to be known as Araneta Center as a premier entertainment hub to compliment/rival the old Downtown Manila area which by that time was already getting too crowded for comfort, so to speak. It would not be until the mid 1960’s when the entertainment scene in Cubao began to boom. As with the rise of the department stores, movie houses in and around Cubao began to mushroom. From then until the…
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reminiscing Cubao: when department stores were kings
As was mentioned in a previous entry, Cubao at its height was a premier commercial destination. For casual shoppers and enthusiasts, Cubao was one of the top destinations in mind if you’re looking for variety and great bargains to boot. To give you a good idea of how bustling was Cubao’s shopping activity during its heyday, I would refer you to this customized Google Earth map I made. Here you can see that the department stores (who at the time were the upper echelons of the shopping hierarchy) were located right across or next to each other. You can imagine the chaos if there was a simultaneous sale that will…
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reminiscing Cubao: C.O.D. Cubao Department Store
This 2010 Christmas season, I thought it would be appropriate that The Urban Roamer’s Journal pay tribute to what was once one of the premier, if not THE premier, Christmas destinations in Metro Manila: the commercial business district of Cubao in Quezon City. On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to experience memorable Christmases past in Cubao in its past glory and be dismayed by its decline over the years, but at the same time hopeful for some future memorable Christmases to be witnessed in Cubao in the midst of its bid to recapture its old glory. Long before malls became the premier shopping destination, it was the department…
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The soul of Quezon City (part 3): the Quezon Memorial Circle
From its original purpose as the site of what supposed to be our National Capitol of a new capital city, the elliptical-shaped land was eventually converted to a park and a memorial to the capital city’s founder and Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon. Even so, the Quezon Memorial Circle that we have today is a far cry from what it was originally intended: it would be more of a grand memorial (with an auditorium, library, and a bit larger museum) dedicated to Quezon rather than the green landscape we now see.