Since the building’s genesis in 1940 as El Teatro Argel, it had been used as a movie theater, a disco, a storage space, and a church. The artful structure was the work of Pedro Mendez Mercado, a native of Ponce who received his BA in architecture from Syracuse University and went on to design many of the multitude of Art Deco-style theaters around Ponce, in addition to his most famous work, the Miami Building in Condado, Puerto Rico. However, in 1990, a fire so powerful it melted some of the iron beams that held up the ceiling left the grand theater vacant and lifeless for two decades until Ponce businessman Carlos Colón moved in across the street.

In 2008, Colón started La Nueva Victoria bakery on the street that was once the main avenue for business in the city. Another project quickly caught his eye: The empty shell of a 1940 movie theater that sat vacant across the street. “Every day when we opened the doors to our bakery at 5am, as we saw the old theater in front of us,” Colón’s daughter Tatiana explained, “[My father] could feel that the building was screaming to be saved. That it deserved a new life.”

Colón began to ask the building’s owner about the possibility of purchasing the historic property, but was turned down again and again until finally, a few years later, the owner consented. In February 2013, the Colón family started work on the place. A mere four walls and ceiling damaged beyond repair, the place needed a fresh reimagining—and a lot of time and money—before it could get on track. For the next year, all the profits from the bakery went to rehabbing the theater. “We decided that everything we made on the bakery was going to the other building, so we had almost no profits for us,” Tatiana commented. “It was an investment that pays off now. It was a difficult year, but my father had this idea in his mind, and he was going to make it happen no matter what.”

Colón, an experienced contractor, oversaw the renovation and did much of the work himself—and with such a damaged space, there was no shortage of work to do. The roof had to be replaced and the interior reconstructed.

Colón did research on how to give the building a historic feel, and every significant change made to the space had to be approved by the city’s historical commission, who also helped pick the bold teal color that now graces the building’s exterior.

While many of the building’s original interior details were lost over the years through renovation or by fire, Colón sought to preserve what details were there. One exciting find was the theater’s original 1941 projector, which was found on the second floor. Colón moved the projector to the front entrance, where it now sits behind the large glass windows that look into the newly refinished bakery space.

Another discovery was the original flooring that had been in the building’s open entrance foyer. The floor had been covered with other tiling at some point, saving the 1940 tiles, which Colón restored and then replicated throughout the rest of the building with similar materials. In the process, Colón decided to add a little history of his own: In the entrance area, he integrated tiling with the letters T, A, E, and L—the first letters of his four daughters’ names. Colón calls the women his legacy, and they help out with running the bakery in addition to their own jobs. “There’s no doubt that those letters will become a part of history since they’re now a part of the building,” said Tatiana Colón. “It’s a beautiful story to tell generation after generation.”

While Colón headed up the project, many hands pitched in to help bring the building’s rebirth into fruition. Architects and decorators lent their advice for free and a student from a local university painted the signature Art Deco bas relief panels on the exterior. The project took four years to complete, with work wrapping up in the summer of 2017. The Colóns got to work ordering tables, chairs, espresso machines, and the works for the newly finished space—until Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September.

The family postponed opening the new bakery space and put all hands on deck to using their old building to help out the hurting community. Thankfully, no serious damage had been done to the newly renovated Teatro Argel, however, and after the family and a team of helpers moved the entire bakery from one building to another in one night, La Nueva Victoria Panadería y Repostera opened in its new home on December 16, 2017, marking a new chapter for both El Teatro Argel and La Nueva Victoria.

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