Hacienda Buena Vista
Worker barracks, outbuildings and equipment deteriorated rapidly from the tropical climate and rainfall. In 1984, the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust bought 86 of the original 500 acres (2.0 km2), with the intention of restoring it. The impressive machines are once again in motion.It is now owned by the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust (Fideicomiso de Conservación), who operates it as a museum. Original 19th-century farm machinery is exhibited that shows how a coffee plantation worked in the 1880s. Coordinates: 18°9′52.01″N 66°37′32.01″W / 18.1644472°N 66.6255583°W / 18.1644472; -66.6255583 .
By 1937 agriculture had seriously declined in Puerto Rico, and the plantation was partially abandoned, becoming mostly a weekend country house for the Vives. Originally, the Vives estate covered 500 acres (2.0 km2). In 1845, the son of Don Salvador added a corn mill operation to the profitable fruit and vegetable production.
Hacienda Buena Vista, also known as Hacienda Vives (or Buena Vista Plantation in English), is a plantation and estate in Ponce, Puerto Rico established in the 19th Century. Despite the grave deterioration of the coffee-processing machinery and the farm buildings, the Conservation Trust managed to restore the estate so that it could be used to educate the public about the golden era of fine coffee growing in the mountains of Puerto Rico.
The grandson of Don Salvador oversaw the addition of coffee growing and processing to the plantains and cornmeal, taking advantage of the great coffee growing boom of the 1880s and 1890s. Don Salvador s son and grandson introduced some of the most innovative farm machinery on the island, powered by a nearby 100-foot waterfall.
Visitors can take tours through the old Vives country home and explore the plantation buildings and grounds. The plantation was started by Don Salvador de Vives in 1833.
Farm animals roam the grounds, the farmhouse rooms have been fully furnished, and the scent of freshly roasted coffee fills the surrounding air. The original owners donated many of the furnishings, and the Conservation Trust has purchased other authentic pieces. Hacienda Buena Vista is now a well known educational tourist destination.
Eventually Hacienda Buena Vista would become one of the more successful plantations in the mountains of Puerto Rico. A series of hurricanes and the failing coffee market brought operations at the Hacienda to a standstill by 1900, and gradually Hacienda Buena Vista fell into disrepair and was abandoned. It is located on 81.79 acres of fertile land that includes a humid subtropical forest some 7 miles north of Ponce on Route PR-123, Hacienda Buena Vista was started in 1833 by Don Salvador de Vives, a Catalonian immigrant arriving from Venezuela, as a truck farm to produce plantains, bananas, corn, avocados, and other fruits to sell in Ponce and in the sugar cane estates along the southern coast.
