Home Improvement

After conservation and some snooping for its collection, Casa Gorordo Museum reopens and invites us home.

- Angel Yulo

In September 2014, Cebu’s well-loved house museum Casa Gorordo closed its doors for some home improvement. There were gaps to be filled, not just structural ones. The museum team, under the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), decided to revisit their collection in order to tell a more cohesive story of and for the Cebuanos. With historical research and a knack for following clues, they pieced it together.

Casa Gorordo has stood in the Parian district for over 150 years. Its coral stone base, hardwood second floor, and clay tile roof— salient features of a Balay nga Tisa—sheltered four generations of the Gorordo family and a trove of household items spanning the years of the house’s existence. Those versed with Cebu’s history know that Parian is built on marshland. Early builders found their solution in tugas (Philippine molave) whose water-resistance made it a staple in galleon yards. Whole trunks were used as structural posts of the house and panels as flooring.

An earlier intervention, some time in the 1980s, already saw some of the posts replaced due to rotting caused by the high water table. When the recent conservation team visited the site, they noticed a portion of the second floor looked like it was sinking. This deviation from the elevation prompted them to go downstairs where they found coral stones distended near the main posts. Conclusion: something was wrong with the foundation.