Photo of the Completed Lipa Public Market [July 1914 BPW Quarterly Bulletin]

This photograph is part of a series showing mostly construction projects undertaken by the Bureau of Public Works during the American colonial era. All photographs have been digitally extracted from the Quarterly Bulletins of the bureau and processed using graphics editing software to improve quality. It goes without saying that the eventual output of each extract was always going to be dependent on the quality of the original scan.

Below is a picture of the public market in Lipa in 1914, described by the Bureau of Public Works in its July 1914 edition as “probably the most complete market establishment of any provincial town in the Islands.” Lipa officials were said to be very proud of the facility and were always considering ways to improve it.

This was market was described as having “three main buildings each 21 by 43.5 meters, one block of concrete tiendas, and a concrete “matadero,” the latter now under construction.” The roads around the market had been graded and paved with macadam or crushed stone, which also meant that these roads were classified as first class. The total cost of the market was ₱61,000.00, but the monthly returns in terms of revenue were placed at ₱800.00

At the time that the report was written, municipal officials in Lipa were “working on a project for installing a steel tank with tower and a power pumping plant over the artesian well in order to have an ample water supply throughout the grounds.”

¹ “Bureau of Public Works Quarterly Bulletin, Volume 2 No. 4,” compiiled by C.A. Tansill, published July 1914 in Manila by the Bureau of Public Works.