Casa Cautiño's owner, Genaro Cautiño Vázquez, was a wealthy Guayama landowner as well as a colonel of the Volunteer Battalion of the Spanish Army. During the Spanish-Americn War, Casa Cautiño served as the headquarters for the American forces, and it was occupied by U.S. Brig. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant. After the war, Genaro Cautiño returned to the one-story U-shaped house with an interior patio at its center, which local architect Manual Texidor built in 1887 after having graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. An important cultural resource located within the Puerto Rican government-recognized Guayama Historic Zone, Casa Cautiño is a museum dedicated to the town of Guayama and the Cautiño family.

Casa Cautiño, administered by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, is located at the junction of Vicente Palès and Palmer sts., where it overlooks the plaza in Guayama, Puerto Rico. It is open Tuesday-Saturday 9:00am to 4:30pm, and on Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Call 787-864-9083 or visit the musem's website for more information.

Information and photos courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places Puerto Rico Travel Itinerary, a subsidiary of the National Park Service.

Credits and Sources:

Nancy Cox, Undergraduate Student, University of West Florida