If there is something that strikes the eye of first timers and passing travelers to SARIAYA in Quezon, it is none other than the proud presence of grand ancestral houses, the likes of which one never sees anywhere in this part of the country, that truly defines its one-of-a-kind ambience and character.

These architectural masterpieces, mostly clustered around the classic Church-Municipio-Park Complex town plan of old Hispanic towns in the Philippines, are showcases of the opulent lifestyle of old moneyed Sariayahins during the heyday of the coconut industry in the pre War years. Just as the glycerine from copra fed the German bomb-making war machine in those days, the money earned afforded the Sariayahin landed gentry to buy American and European fixtures, as they remodeled their old Hispanic-Filipino homes into the fabulous, intricate houses of New Orleans-like splendor, availing the exquisite skills and craftsmanship of the migrating Batanguenyo and Kapampangan carpenters. Some of them even hired well-known architects to design them. The beautifully-ornate Dr. Isidro Rodriguez House was built by JUAN NAKPIL, while the eye-catching twin-spired, brick roofed house of erstwhile Tayabas Province Governor Natalio Enriquez, in the so-called Moorish-Alhambra style, was designed by ANDRES LUNA DE SAN PEDRO, the only son of famous painter JUAN LUNA. Even the Municipal Government of erstwhile Sariaya Presidente Hilarion Valderas in 1931, replaced the old Municipio with an art deco style edifice by JUAN ARELLANO.

Those were the days of wine and roses, when lavish balls were held at the park, with well-coiffed and primly-tuxedoed gentry gamely sashaying to at least two, commonly three and at times even four alternately playing local and imported Manila-based orchestras, doing mean Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller brass numbers, well into the wee hours of the next day. Likewise featuring young men and women in fancy costumes, doing well choreographed dance sequences called “Comparsas”, these Valentine’s Day gatherings, sponsored by the so-called Cupid’s club were much-awaited, at times even graced by the likes of soon-to-be-President MANUEL ROXAS on February 1940, its eighth Anniversary Ball. Those were the years so depicted by Donya Concepcion Herrera Vda. De Umali in her “ Tayabas Chronicles “ that began from the late Hispanic times, when lavish ten to twelve or more course table settings groaning with glorious food, sinful desserts and exquisite vintage wines and spirits taken with a sip and a swirl to perfection was the norm …….with seven to eight bands roaming around town in the then orgy of a three-day town fiesta”. The inauguration of the newly enlarged park in 1924, the eventful Rizal Day celebrations of beautiful “ Reinas “ being paraded atop fancily decorated Model Ts, the lavish Boda Manuel Gala-Alicia Enriquez of 1938, graced by the then First Lady of the Philippine Commonwealth Donya Aurora Aragon Quezon who served as “ Ninang “, whose reception was held at the Natalio Enriquez House ……. those bygone days passed along with the unfortunate destruction of most of those fine houses in Sariaya’s four destructive fires of 1930, 1944 (the retreating Japanese burned some parts of town), 1951 and 1961. However, the JUAN ARELLANO Municipio, together with the other two prominently designed ancestral houses mentioned have survived as Sariaya’s architectural treasures.