Casa Hamilton
The Casa Hamilton ("El Elevador de Aguas de Gordejuela") is an industrial ruin and was built in 1903 as a pump and residential building on the Canary Island of Tenerife . This house stands below Romantica I , a district of Los Realejos in the north of the island. From there, walled water pipes run steeply up the slope. The house was built by a trading company called Hamilton , which is why it is also called Casa Hamilton.
history
Originally, a water pump system was housed in the lower part of the building complex . The two upper floors were used as living quarters for the machinist and his family. The first steam engine in Tenerife was operated in this building . The water was pumped to the various former banana plantations in the Orotava Valley . Thus, the valuable fresh water from the sources of Gordejuela could be used for agriculture . A small flour mill is also said to have been operated with it.
The house in which the steam engine was once located stands above Casa Hamilton and was connected to it by a serpentine staircase with around 175 steps. It had a 43 meter high chimney , which is no longer there today.
The total construction costs for the plant amounted to about 1 million pesetas and put a heavy burden on the company, especially since the fruit trade was still deteriorating at that time. Then the Hamilton family leased in 1910, the facility at Elders & Fyffes , a British shipping company to able to pay to stay. In 1919 the plant was sold.
Trivia
The name Hamilton is known in Tenerife. It was a British family who started a new life in the Canary Islands in the 19th century . Some descendants still live in Tenerife and are partly married to local people. The following generations are traditionally sent to England for training.
The municipality of Los Realejos is trying to have the ruins declared a World Heritage Site and thereby preserve them for posterity.
swell
- loquelaspiedrascuentan.blogspot.com.es (Spanish)
- losrealejos.travel (spanish)
- teneriffaurlaub.es (German)
Coordinates: 28 ° 23 '56.1 " N , 16 ° 35' 9.2" W.