El Morro Esplanade: Cultural Landscape Report, San Juan National Historic Site, National Park Service

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates; Liz Sargent HLA; Panamerican Consultants, Inc.

El Morro Esplanade occupies the northwestern end of the small, narrow Isleta de San Juan (Islet of San Juan) that includes the city of Old San Juan on the north coast of Puerto Rico. The property sits in a strategic location overlooking the mouth of San Juan Harbor. As designed, the esplanade was a military drilling and defensive space associated with Castillo San Felipe del Morro, built by the Spanish circa 1539 to defend their interests in the Caribbean. The esplanade was engineered to serve as the glacis for El Morro, essentially an open space without obstructions that would serve as the field of fire for fort artillery. Spanish occupation of El Morro and the esplanade continued until 1898, when the United States acquired Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War. The United States Army subsequently established the San Juan Military Reservation. In 1943, the military reservation was designated Fort Brooke. The post continued to be used to train military personnel until the end of World War II. In 1961, the property was transferred to the Department of the Interior for inclusion in San Juan National Historic Site, established in 1949. Through a cooperative agreement with the US Army, the National Park Service (NPS) began removing military barracks and other structures associated with Fort Brooke in 1951. San Juan National Historic Site is the only National Park unit in Puerto Rico, and one of twenty-two World Heritage Sites in the United States. The National Park Service sought guidance in addressing long-term treatment and management of El Morro Esplanade as well as specific issues and concerns that include erosion, visitor safety, circulation, access, and provision of amenities such as shade, seating, and interpretation. To address these needs, the NPS engaged a consultant team of preservation professionals to prepare a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). The team, led by Panamerican Consultants, Inc. (Panamerican) of Buffalo, New York, and including Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE) of Northbrook, Illinois, and Liz Sargent HLA (LSHLA) of Charlottesville, Virginia, provided management guidance based on detailed documentation of historic and existing conditions, the identification of character-defining features, National Register of Historic Places significance evaluation and integrity assessment, and the development of treatment guidelines and recommendations designed to address the specific needs and concerns of the NPS.

El Morro Esplanade: Cultural Landscape Report, San Juan National Historic Site, National Park Service

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