Morro Castle


A heavy old time gun, Morro Castle, SE up harbor entrance, Cathedral (distance right), Havana, Cuba. This is the Old Spanish Fort where you stand. It was within this land-locked arm of the sea that the Maine lay anchored when the fearful catastrophe of Feb. 15, 1898, brought about the war between the United States and Spain. She lay at anchor at a spot towards which the gun is pointing, this side of that large round-walled mass of building which you see up towards the head of the harbor. The tall four story tower over there near the waterfront in Havana is that of an old church now used as custom-house. The cathedral has two low towers- you can see it at the right of the custom-house. It has been claimed for a long time that the dust of Christopher Colombus rest in an urn sealed up in the western wall of that church, but Santa Domingo also claims the honor of guarding the great man's remains, so one cannot be quite sure what the facts are. Calle O'Reilly, one of the principal business streets, runs from near the waterfront, between the custom-house and the cathedral, off to the west (right). The University and the old Spanish governor's palace are on that street beside a park which extends to the water. Most of the streets are rather narrow but they are very picturesque and interesting, lined with low houses, built of a sort of seashell conglomerate called cantera, which barred windows, balconies, and red-tiled roofs. A little further uptown than you can see at this moment is the Tacon theatre, one of the largest in the western world. All the famous European actors and singers who come to America include this theatre in their tours. A good deal of freighting is done, not only from the wharves over there in Havana, but also from the port of Regla at the other side of the harbor. In one year shipments from here have amounted to 24,799,010 lbs of leaf tobacco, 215,236,371 cigars and 11,529,688 packets of cigarettes.

Photographer:	Unknown	Date:	1903
Publisher & City:	Underwood & Underwood: New York, London, Toronto-Canada, Ottawa-Kansas
Series & Number:	8

Scan courtesy of Roy Winkelman. Image retouched and converted to anaglyph in 2005 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. View this image using 3D glasses with the red lens over the left eye and the blue lens over the right eye.


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