The Silver Townships- La Boca, CZ – Part II

At this time La Boca was primarily a settlement for American employees. Its commissary, opened in September 1907, supplied Ancon and Balboa by wagon each morning; current from its electric light plant was furnished to Ancon and Balboa and, later to Corozal.

There was an elementary school located about where the present Service Center stands. In September 1908, however, The Canal Record reported: “Owing to the small number of children attending school at La Boca last year, that school has been abolished and the children at La Boca will be transported to and from the school at Ancon in a wagonette.”

This phase of La Boca history ended in April 1909, when, by executive order, the town was renamed Balboa. The Peruvian Minister to Panama had suggested the change, saying “As the Atlantic entrance to the Canal is named Cristobal Colon for the great navigator and discoverer of our continent, so should the Pacific entrance be named after the intrepid Balboa, its discoverer.” Thereafter, although there continued to be a Pacific side town it was known as Balboa or East Balboa, and the name La Boca disappeared from official records, temporarily.

In August 1913, exactly one year before the S.S.Ancon made the first official transit of the Canal, Colonel Goethals authorized “the construction of a labor camp at La Boca to provide accommodations for West Indian laborers.” At the time the name for the town had not been chosen.

Several names were suggested: La Boca, Lesseps or deLessps; Espinosa, after the founder of Old Panama; Morgan Town, for the buccaneer; and Lincoln, in honor of the Civil War President. Some objection was found to all except the first of these and on August 18, 1913, the town was officially named La Boca.

La Boca, substantially as it is today, was laid out in a rectangular plan on part of a large fill, southeast of Sosa Hill. Both streets and avenues, which now bear such names as Martinique and Grenada Streets and Jamaica Prado, were originally numbered. The town was divided lengthwise by a park; family quarters were all on the south side and bachelor quarters on the north. A commissary, near the present entrance to Dock 6, supplied “canned vegetables and cold storage goods.”

An elementary school was opened early in 1914 and in September of that year its enrollment was 129. Last year over 1,000 students attended the three La Boca schools. Street car tracks ran parallel to La Boca Road and provided transportation to Panama City. The street car service was maintained until 1941.

Some of the houses were new but many were brought from towns which were being abolished. There were the old hospital, dispensary, and commissary from Porto Belo, converted into living quarters; a laborer’s barracks from Gorgona; a barracks from Paraiso; two houses from Gatun; and several from Diablo. Not all of them had plumbing or kitchens. Wash houses, outhouses, and cook sheds stood behind each small group of quarters.

Wood to fuel the stoves was dumped daily into boxes at the entrance to each set of quarters by a wagon from a sawmill located where the Balboa police station now stands.

Maintenance of La Boca was something of a problem. In late 1914, the administration offered prizes of $5, or a percentage reduction in rent, for the best-kept, neatest, and cleanest quarters of various types. The prize system was followed for about two years.

While La Boca was primarily a town for local-rate workers, there were a few American families living there. Most of the Americans were people waiting completion of quarters in Balboa and Balboa Heights. Old La Bocans still call the street where they lived “Gold Street.”

In 1915 the Acting Governor, Chester Harding, turned down a Metal Trades Council request that the La Boca quarters be assigned to Americans and said: “The Administration hopes to provide quarters sufficient to house every Gold employee on the permanent force. Quarters are being constructed as fast as the money is available. I think the present unsatisfactory state will not continue for more than a year.”

Note from the author: The post image is of the Silver Schools Administration building and it administered all the “Silver Schools” on the Canal Zone including the schools on the Atlantic side. Most White administrators had their offices in Balboa and Ancon . These were times that no “Silver” administrator or clerks were really admitted in the White administration offices on the hill.

This story continues.