Havana '59 Exhibition and Sale at Eastern University - Opening - November 11, 2011

Presented by Eastern University, Friends of the Library, and Pennsylvania Trust to benefit the David R. Black Academic Enrichment Fund. Click here to for tickets to the November 11,2011 Grand Opening at the Bolingbroke Mansion in Radnor

Sponsers (to date)
: (click on link to view sponsors websites) Pennsylvania Trust, Corporate Dimensions, LTD., Handelok Bag Company, Edmar Abrasive Company, Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union, Newman & Saunders Galleries

Downtown Old Havana

Click on Image for Larger View
40" x 60" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©

SOLD

Owned by Pennsylvania Trust
Prints are available

Please contact george@rothackeradv.com

The Paseo de Marti is the main boulevard of Old Havana, and the most beautiful. It reaches  from the seafront, or the Malecon, to just past the capital building of Havana, and is lined by many  baroque and neoclassic buildings from the mid to late 18th  and 19th centuries.

Today, the streets are still bustling with tourists, townspeople and cars and cabs of the 1940s and ‘50s. Despite the collapse of many buildings and disintegration of others, life continues as in a war torn country. In some buildings, stairs lead from an abandoned and crumbling ground floor to a bustling restaurant three stories up. The rhythms of wrought iron railings are broken by plastic patchings, and stained glass is replaced by plywood. Lines of wash and TV antennas alert of life behind the shuddered doors.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed many structures in Old Havana, overturning years of conservation work directed at the iconic antiquated buildings of the area. Not only did it damage historic buildings, but it forced many of Old Havana's residents to flee for safety. The threats that hurricanes pose adds to an already tenuous state for Old Havanas many historic buildings. Age, decay, and neglect combine with natural factors in a complex set of threats to the long-term preservation of this historic old town*

*Frank Herbst, Cuba - Handbuch für individuelles Reisen, Reise Know-How Verlag 2006