[2] The Batiz Residence was built in 1897 by the renown engineer Manuel Domenech for the Mayor of the City of Ponce, Don Pedro Juan Rosaly.

A native of Ponce, Domenech graduated from the prestigious Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of New York and was responsible for many of the island's most lavish turn-of-the-century buildings.

[2] Among Domenech's other designs are the Caryatid House (1910) which faces the Ponce Cathedral and the "Asilo de Pobres" (listed in the National Register on 2 December 1985).

In this case, Domenech referred to the Renaissance Italian Palazzo as a model, a theme repeated in other properties both in Ponce and Mayaguez.

However stern, the Batiz Residence displays a greater degree of mannerism over eclecticism, resulting in one of Ponce's most distinguished structures.

[2] The property was purchased in the 1920s as the city residence of Antonio Batiz Olivera, a wealthy coffee plantation owner.

[3] This structure of stuccoed brick and rubble consists of two stories set on a podium approximately four feet above street level.

[3] At the first level, a recessed loggia is created by an arcade of segmental arches supported by diminished Doric columns on pedestals.

Inside the loggia the central doorway is flanked by rusticated segmental arches with full-height, double-shutter jalousies.