History

This village was founded in 1829 by Don Francisco Aguilar, who was the first exploiting the resources of the area, like the salting houses or "saladeros".
He arrived to our country in 1810. Being a rich man, he was the owner of many merchant ships and the first one manufacturing them in the Rio de la Plata.
He also was an important politician, a farmer and a cattle rancher.
He was one of the Majors of Maldonado between 1829 and 1830 and Senator in 1840 and installed his tobacco and potatoes plantations in 1811 and added to that businesses the silkworm raising and the floor tile manufacturing.
The existence of whales was very important at that time, so that he was also given the right by law to fish them for 10 years. As a Major he realized many public works as well. He founded schools, churchs, and prisons. He died when he was being a Senator in 1840, at the age of 64.

In 1843 the peninsula was bought by the Lafone brothers, who paid for it $4,500 and $1500 for the Gorriti Island. The circulation in the peninsula was only allowed by the old wood carts which were pull all over the sand by camels. They were brought by Aguilar, and were the right ones to do that job because of the amount of sand, which every year threated to cover the little city.

Punta del Este has to thanks Enrique Burnett because he was the first one who decide to forest the peninsula, bringing pine trees and planting them all over the coast.

In 1907 there was a little population in the area, the Hotel Risso, La Capitania, the Chalet de Suarez and 50 houses. In this year arrived the first ship with tourists called "La Golondrina". There were coming families from Argentina and Montevideo who were invited by The Directive of the Society of Punta del Este That was the beginning of Punta del Este as an international beach resort destination for vacations.

The First One

A- Nicasio de los Santos was the first taxi driver whose taxi used to be parked next to the train Station and took the people to the commercial center and to the hotels.

B- The first water well was located at the Parada 5 of the Mansa Beach, and its drilling was around 1930. It was directed by the Ing. Eduardo Magnano, from the Geological Institute. All the water wells of the peninsula coasts were drilled later, even the one with the sweetest water, at Parada 7, where nowadays the OSE is located. OSE is the national water distributor company.

C- The first doctor was Dr. Edye, the first lawyers and notary public were Román Guerra, followed by Melchor Esquivel, Andrea Matto, Antonio Tognaro y Alberto Luis Vidal, from San Carlos. The first dentist was Dr. Antonio Seoane.

Buildings and places to go

In 1907 Pedro Risso´s -which was later Hotel Central and today is the Palace-, and Biarritz Hotel - today an apartments building - already existed and disputed with the España building the honor of been the first organized hotels in the peninsula. Later would come the British House, the Miguez and the Punta del Este hotel.

In 1909 was the beginning of the Punta del Este church construction and 7 years later it was done.

In 1916 was installed the first electrical illumination system in the city.

In 1924 the Punta del Este Yatch Club was founded by Dr. Niceto S. de Loizaga and some of his best friends. San Rafael´s land sub-division was done by Laureano Alonsopérez, an Spanish man who came from Argentina. Pizzorno and Lussich were the ones who formed a commercial association to begin the construction of San Rafael Hotel The land was where Beverly Hills neighborhood is located today. The Jaguel was the classic place to take a stroll. It was built by Mr. Clauser, who had been the owner of the Palace Hotel before - the Rizzo first -. It was the place chosen by the people to take a stroll or dancing and by the chidren to go to the barn to fill their glasses with fresh milk. From the exit of Punta del Este to the barn there were some advertisements pending from the trees which showed the famous phrase "FOLLOW THE COW"

In 1937 Juanito Domínguez Abad, from Canarias, and the brazilian Alberto "Pintinho" de Moraes PInto would change the routine of the peninsula making it more fun. They inaugurated many restaurants and pubs.

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