Guam Preservation Trust
This house is a tangible link to Old Hagåtña and one of the few remaining pre-World War II structures and a testament to one of Guam's best known Chamorro builders, designer and businessman, Jose Pangelinan Lujan. It is important because it represents Chamorro homes that used to dominate the streetscape of this capital village of Hagåtña.
The Spanish-introduced, Chamorro method of construction used for this two-story house is mamposteria. Jose P. Lujan, a Chamorro Hagåtña resident, built the house by hauling the coral stones from Hagåtña Bay and using a local hardwood, ifil.
Lujan built the house with the intention of renting to U.S. Naval officers who were his first tenants. Historians speculate that this house was one of the first built on Guam with indoor plumbing. Sometime in the 1920's, Lujan lived in the house with his new wife for two years while he built them another house in Anigua.
For a long period of this building's life it housed the Guam Institute, one of the first private schools during Guam's Naval Era, run by Nieves Flores. Archbishop Felixberto Flores (the first Chamorro archbishop), the first Chamorro Chief Judge Joaquin Perez, Governor Ricardo Bordallo, and other prominent local figures were all students at this school.
Recent rehabilitation efforts were able to use all the original limestone and replaced the unsalvageable ifil wood with the same species. In addition, the Trust recreated the old road that formerly ran right in front of the Lujan House as a reminder of Old Hagåtña and how Guam’s capital village fell victim to the war, its reoccupation and installation of city streets in a capital village that used to house 9,832 people pre-war (half of the island's population at the time).
In November 2010 the Guam Preservation Trust completed rehabilitation efforts of the 1911 Historic Jose P. Lujan house in Hagåtña. It now houses the Trust's offices on the second floor is being used as administrative and management space for the staff of the Guam Preservation Trust, the first floor is used by various community organizations throughout the year - in keeping with the structure's use as an institution of learning.
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