I spent most of my early years being a resident of Quezon City. I was born and raised in Quezon City. I spent my entire childhood in this city. All the schools I went to were in Quezon City — Republican College, Stella Maris College and University of the Philippines, Diliman. My family and I only moved to Rizal province after my college graduation and when I finally had my first job. But even then, many of my activities were still in Quezon City. That is why Quezon City will always have a special place in my heart.
I’ve long wanted to bring my kids to the Quezon City Memorial Circle to have a field trip. But since we live in the south of the metro, this plan has been postponed many times.
This month, being History Month and the month when Quezon City Day and Quezon Day is celebrated, I planned to bring our boys here for a field trip. Thankfully, it finally pushed through yesterday, August 27, 2017.
My original plan was to bring our kids to QC Experience, which was also inside the Memorial Circle. But we found out yesterday that they have changed their operating schedule already and they are no longer open on Sundays. They are now open from Monday to Saturday. Also, since today, August 28, is a holiday, because the celebration of National Heroes Day was moved to today, the administration closed the facility yesterday also. Good thing, the two other museums inside the compound are open. Yes, there are three (3) museums that you can visit inside the QC Memorial Circle. Isn’t that wonderful? And another good news about these museums is that these two museums, Museo ni Quezon and The Quezon Heritage House do not have entrance fees.
The Quezon Heritage House
We started our field trip by visiting the Quezon Heritage House. This is a replica of the original house that his family had in New Manila. They moved many of the structures and furniture to the QC Memorial Circle since the original property was already sold. It’s not as big as the original house because of the limited space allotted for it inside the Memorial Circle.
At the staircase leading to the balcony and main door of the house. Near the stairs, you can find a list of guidelines when visiting and the schedule. The Heritage House is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9 AM to 4 PM.
Although the house was really open during Sundays, most of the guides took a day off yesterday because of the long weekend. Good thing that one of the guides, Sara, was there to accommodate us. She explained each part, room and shared anecdotes about the different things that can be found in the Quezon Heritage House.
My husband and I learned new things about former President Manuel L. Quezon and his family. We were also reminded of some of the things we learned about him from our history lessons in the past.
Let me take you to a virtual tour of the house.
The first room is the bedroom of Dona Aurora, the wife of former President Manuel L. Quezon.
Inside the room of Dona Aurora.
The bedroom of the Dona Aurora and the former President are separated by the nurse’s bedroom in the middle. This was because the former President got sick with tuberculosis. Our guide shared that the former President can smoke around 60 sticks of cigarette or equivalent to around 3 packs of cigarette. This habit has contributed to his sickness which made his lungs weak and eventually succumbed to tuberculosis. On the cabinet are some of his clothes, picture frames and walking sticks.
This was on the main floor of the house. It has a high ceiling. It has big windows also. Like most old houses in the Philippines, there is also a ground floor or basement.
This is called a platera. It contains the plates and other dining pieces that the Quezon family used.
One of the dining tables that they used.
Our little chef at the former President’s kitchen.
One of the former President’s favorite dishes.
There is a spiral staircase that leads to the basement where you can find more rooms and a big dining room that also serves as a conference room.
This big dining area also served as a meeting room and conference room. This is the first room to the right when you descend the spiral stair case. It has portraits of the couple.
This was displayed in the bookcase together with the other mementos of the former President just outside the big dining area at the basement.
This is a life-sized wax statue of the former President near the receiving area at the basement.
Going inside the basement bedroom of Dona Aurora.
This was another room of Dona Aurora at the basement. She used this when she was already old and had difficulty going up and down the stairs.
Some of the ternos or clothes that Dona Aurora and her daughters used beside the aparador or wardrobe.
There is another bedroom on this floor for the daughters of the Quezon couple. When their daughters are not home, it also served as a guest room.
I was happy that they had a typewriter in the room. It’s rare to see typewriters these days.
They had a swimming pool also outside the house.
Our family at the balcony of the house.
I love bonding with my kids through field trips. I love it when our field trips are timely and relevant to the holidays being celebrated at the time of our field trip.
The field trip to The Quezon Heritage House took us around less than an hour but over 30 minutes. If you have older kids or adults with you, it might last for an hour because I would encourage those who already know how to read to read the posters they have made and examine the memorabilia.
Young children have shorter attention spans; so, you cannot expect them to linger that long to inspect the memorabilia. My husband and I read some parts of the posters to the younger ones. We encouraged our eldest (who is already 8 years old) to read the posters also.
After touring The Quezon Heritage House, we had lunch first at Max’s restaurant which was nearby and just inside the QC Memorial Circle.
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