The newest addition to the Hacienda Petac estate is called Casa Ramón, named for the towering trees that offer a canopy of shade above it. As with the rest of the Hacienda, we believe that the greatest purpose of any building is to bring families and friends together. That’s why the plans for this 3,000 square foot annex with two master suites, also included an irresistibly inviting terrace and a state-of-the-art entertainment salon big enough to host a group for movie night.
We also considered that any new building at the Hacienda should be as memorable as the old. For this reason, the innovative Casa Ramón design is very much an evocation of the beautifully grand hacienda architecture of the Yucatán. The expansive terrace, soaring columns and colorful tiles are all very classically Yucatecan. But, just as importantly, the new building incorporates Petac’s history without imitating or diluting the Hacienda’s colonial past.
By design, the Casa Ramón’s dual use as a house and an entertainment teatro affords us the opportunity to send a nod back to a unique part of our past. To enter the new complex, guests walk through the partial walls and stone remains of what once were the Hacienda’s schoolhouse, theater, and teacher’s home. We have purposefully included these remnants of the past, in order to retell their story.
According to those who still remember the trio of buildings, they were beautiful structures of both stone and wood, painted to match in the same colors as the casa principal. The little compound was home to both morning and afternoon school sessions. Students could attend from either 7am to 10am, or, from 2pm to 5pm. The theater was used to recite lessons and poetry. At the back, with walls of stone, was the school teacher’s house.
As the story goes, about 65 years ago, the teacher decided one day between school sessions to take the narrow gauge railway that ran through the Hacienda, into town to buy some ice cream. Apparently, a candle was left burning in her absence, and by the time she returned, the wooden schoolhouse and theater had burned to the ground.
A permanent school was rebuilt–from cinderblocks this time–three years later in the village of Petac. The stone foundation of the teacher’s house, a column from the teatro and the charred rubble of floor tiles still remain at the Hacienda.
The legacy of the school house, theater, and the teacher’s blunder, are preserved as we welcome the beautiful new Casa Ramón to Petac’s historical record.
