page_title: Luneta Hotel
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Luneta Hotel / History
caption_attribution_description: PictionID:38279089 - Catalog:AL-135A 076 - Filename:AL-135A 076.tif - This image is from a photo album donated to the Museum by JL Highfill, who was a photographer for the Navy before and during the Second World War-----------PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.-----------------SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
context_page_description: The Luneta Hotel is a historic hotel in Manila, Philippines. Named after its location across from Luneta on Kalaw Avenue in Ermita, it is one of the remaining structures that survived the Liberation of Manila in 1945. The hotel was completed in 1919. According to the study by Dean Joseph Fernandez of the University of Santo Tomas, the hotel was designed by the Spanish architect-engineer Salvador Farre. The structure is the only remaining example of French Renaissance architecture with Filipino stylized beaux arts in the Philippines to date. After being closed down and abandoned in 1987, the hotel was relaunched in May 2014 with the installation of a historical marker by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
context_section_description: During World War II, the Luneta Hotel became a brothel of American G.I.s who were off to Corregidor after Manila had been declared an open city. Surviving veterans of the war still recall how the hotel served as a hope when it survived the bombardment and how it was turned into a comfort area for soldiers facing imminent death.
  In its early years, the hotel became the site of European imports that were distributed to Manila. It was a time of beauty, innovation and peace. The hotel has been known to serve well-prepared breakfast and lunch, exotic among foreigners of the time. But the operations of the Luneta Hotel demanded high-maintenance and so it was neglected even by its owners.
caption: Aerial photo of the Luneta hotel in 1930, to the left of the no-longer existing University Apartments
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