First Tourist Company in the Canary Islands

THE OROTAVA VALLEY HOTEL AND SANATORIUM COMPANY. FIRST TOURIST COMPANY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS On April 11, 1886, the La Orotava Valley Hotel and Sanatorium Company was born in Puerto de la Cruz, which in its beginnings also received the name The Orotava Grand Hotel Company Limited, whose share capital was 20,000 pounds sterling ( around half a million pesetas 3,005 euros ), divided into one thousand shares of 20 pounds each. Thus begins tourism as such in the Canary Islands. Of the 17 directors of the company, eleven were prominent island aristocrats and bourgeois: the president was the Count of Valle de Salazar (Esteban Salazar Ponte), Sebastián Fernández Montañés, Antonio María Casañas González, Antonio Espinosa Estrada, Agustín Espinosa Estrada, Felipe Machado del Hoyo, Diego Arroyo Soto, Ricardo Ruiz Aguilar, Luis Benítez de Lugo, Juan Cumella and Víctor Pérez González; The remaining four have foreign surnames: the British William Strickland Harris (who will be the manager of the company), Andrés Carpenter, Luis Renshaw de Orea, Peter S. Reid (English viceconsul of Puerto de la Cruz), Charles H. Hamilton and Francisco Renshaw Pereso. The treasurers were Agustín Espinosa, Peter Reid, Charles Hamilton and the Catalan businessman Juan Cumella. The financial representatives in London were Sinclair, Hamilton and Co., a family branch of Hamilton & Co. of Tenerife, while the legal advisors are the notary Agustín Delgado and Joaquín Estrada. The company intended to build a hotel in La Paz. But until it was built, he rented a villa on the Martiánez plains, owned by Antonia Dehesa Sanz, widow of Francisco García Gutiérrez, to install The Orotava Grand Hotel (the future Martiánez hotel). The house met all the conditions to install a hotel that would satisfy the clientele it was intended to bring: disabled tourists (mainly tuberculous and sick with other lung pathologies). It opened in September 1886 and was directed by William S. Harris, with Rudolph Egger being deputy director. Other facilities were immediately rented, including the Casa Zamora (future Monopol hotel), the Buenavista (the future Inmaculada hospital in Puerto de la Cruz) and the family home of the Marquise de la Candia (the future Marquesa hotel). The opening of the Orotava Grand Hotel caused a great impact due to the notable presence of visitors and at the same time meant a giant step in the modernization of the islands: - A British community is established in Puerto de la Cruz that will play an important role in the development of economic and social activity, in addition to being a first-rate support for local tourism. It is also partly responsible for the production and marketing of new agricultural export products. - Many island owners abandon the pessimism caused by the cochineal crisis and begin to think in terms of tourism to overcome the economic crisis, not only in Puerto de la Cruz, but also in La Laguna, Icod, Güimar, Santa Cruz, La Orotava and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. - The authentic accommodation infrastructure in Tenerife, both hotel and nonhotel, begins to develop. - A frenetic activity begins in the La Orotava Valley and in Puerto de la Cruz in particular with demand for products related to tourism: construction materials, household goods, foodstuffs, fertilizers for export agricultural products, etc. - For its part, tourism serves to stimulate public administrations in their concern for infrastructure improvements so that towns can offer a more attractive and civilized image to foreign visitors. The improvements on the road that goes up to Teide and the one that goes to the Montañeta de Los Realejos stand out. In a special way, the conditioning of the sidewalks on Cupido Street where the main entrance of the Orotava Grand Hotel was located. In La Orotava, the Horticultural Exhibition of 1888, in the Victoria Gardens, donated by the Marchioness of the Quinta Roja, at the foot of the empty mausoleum, responds to the desire to set an example of local initiative to foreigners. Even the local press is beginning to be interested in climate therapy and sees tourism as an alternative to overcome the battered island agriculture. The success achieved during the period 1887-1888 led to new business initiatives, some of which were already contemplated in an initial propaganda brochure printed by the early company. First of all, they want to buy the house from Mrs. Dehesa, but the offer of 30,000 pesetas 180.3 euros was not accepted by the owner and so the company decides to build the first class hotel in La Paz. But, the Hotel and Sanatorium Company at that time had not covered its share capital, and 36.4% of the shares had yet to be placed. This leads to William S. Harris, the director of the hotel, to think about seeking financing in your country. The first thing he does is carry out commercial operations in Puerto de la Cruz with the Marquis of La Candia, Tomás Fidel Cloguen, to lease him part of the land in La Paz. With the young Luis Renshaw Orea as interpreter, Harris formalizes a private pre-contract of lease before a notary of the lands of the Marquis of Candia. The stipulated price for the lease of the land was 2,500 pesetas 15.03 euros annually, payable semiannually and, in addition, the future leasing company had to pay 125 pesetas 0.75 euros annually, also payable semiannually, for each villa or small hotel he built. Under the contract, the future company or society was obliged to build 10 villas of that type within three years, and in the event that the company did not manufacture the quantity of 10 villas, it would be obliged to satisfy the 125 in the same way. pesetas 0.75 euros annually per villa. The lease included three water shares of the Aguas del Patronato company and one share of the Aguas del Rey company, whose quotas would be established based on the volume of water consumed. When the operation between William Harris and Tomas Fidel Cloguen was still hot, due to disagreements between some of the company's partners they formed The Taoro Company Ltd. or Taoro Company. However, William Harris continues to move forward with his project. With the lease in hand and the specific support of some local landowners, he traveled to London in the autumn of 1888 in search of social and financial support and managed to establish an English commercial entity, The Teneriffe Hotel and Villa Co, in January 1889. It must be said that at that time another company had been founded in London, The Canary Island, which was responsible for the construction of the Santa Catalina hotel in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Upon returning from Great Britain, William Harris finds that he has been removed from his position as director of the Sanatorium or Orotava Grand Hotel, being run by the other company that in March 1888 had been formed with the dissatisfied members, The Taoro Company Ltd. The shares of the company formed by William Harris in London, The Teneriffe Hotel and Villa Co., were not sold and the La Paz project failed. The Teneriffe Hotel and Villa Co. was dissolved in London on 11 March 1892 without having operated at any time. The new promoters led by Víctor Pérez González decide to build the Taoro hotel. The “new” company began its journey with a share capital of 500,000 pesetas 3,005.06 euros , divided into five hundred shares of 500 pesetas 3.01 euros each. The board of directors of The Taoro Company Ltd. includes two members of the company named above (Agustín Espinosa and Víctor Pérez González), with other shareholders appearing among which the banker Nicolás Dehesa, Charles H. Hamilton, the British Arthur H. Pring and Edward Beanes, among others. In general, among its shareholders there were prominent members of the bourgeoisie of the island of Tenerife, along with a small, but extraordinarily important from the point of view of capital, foreign investors. On May 25 of the same year, both companies merged, forming a single company that would take the name “Taoro, Company for the Construction and Operation of Hotels and Villas in the La Orotava Valley.” From the early days of its foundation, the company harbored the project of building a large hotel equipped with the most modern comfort, and it was decided to do so in the bad country then called Monte Miseria, an idea attributed to Víctor Pérez González, for which several hectares of land in this area belonging to 16 owners. For the construction of the hotel, the French architect Adolph Coquet, a personal friend of Víctor Pérez González, who had previously been in Tenerife (1882) for being responsible for the architecture of the Mausoleum of the Quinta Roja in La Orotava, was appointed. The leveling of the land began in the spring of 1888, as well as the construction of the highway that linked to the San Antonio state highway, passing through the Risco de Oro. The construction of the new hotel also began in 1888, first addressing the Construction of the central pavilion and the technical direction of the work was carried out by the architect Manuel Cámara Cruz, with the contract falling to Rafael Clavijo. The works began very quickly and were controlled by Francisco Aguilar y Fuentes, a member of the company, under the supervision of the Englishmen Beanes and Burdett. The initial works finished in December 1890, with the central pavilion being inaugurated with a great party on December 22, 1890. The second phase of the work, that is, the construction of the side wings, which were not included in the initial project , began in June 1891, with the work being entrusted to the Orotaven contractor Ni colás Álvarez, always under the technical direction of the architect Manuel Cámara Cruz. The hotel was called Taoro Grand Hotel, English Grand Hotel or simply Taoro hotel. The building constructed consisted of a central body facing north, that is, towards the town of Puerto de la Cruz, the coast. Two wings emerged from the ends of this central pavilion, facing west and east, giving rise to a central patio facing south, sheltered from the dominant trade winds. The height of the building was three floors, with an additional one in the four corner towers. It can be said that this building was the largest in the Canary Islands at the time. The mezzanine was intended for a cellar, warehouses, a few rooms, accommodation for servants and other uses. When we carefully examine the Taoro Grand Hotel we see how its structure responds to the exuberant architecture models of the time. In its interior walls it exudes a serene, elegant and cultured atmosphere. The variety and breadth of common areas available to guests, treated like true counts, was striking; inside the spacious dining room, with a round table for eighty covers and thirty tables for families, where meals were served sprinkled with European culinary delights; the great hall of exquisite taste and luxury where the charming balls were held; The bedrooms on the upper floor radiate comfort and convenience for guests; The billiard room made it possible to play a fashionable game among the upper classes and the reading room evoked a place of silence and peace; The lobby – ending in a large central staircase – was resplendent with marble. The long outdoor porch, designed especially for reading, drinking tea or getting some fresh air, as well as serving breakfast, was oriented towards the south to avoid the cold air produced by the trade winds. But the most notable thing was the abundance of good quality furniture. The furniture and its decorative tone are reminiscent of what was seen in other hotel establishments in Europe, since the hotel's highest standard of comfort was adjusted to the taste of the elegant forms of royalty – wooden floors (except for the lobby, which is marble), mahogany furniture, wardrobes with glass, dressing tables with mirrors, "eaglelegged" table, Vienna slatted chairs, crockery and cutlery with magnificent gold and silver pieces, etc. –. The same interior decoration was in keeping with good artistic taste from the reception room – as Hérnandez Gutiérrez points out, quoting the commentary in Diario de Tenerife of April 29, 1892 – “royally decorated to the taste of the time of Louis XVI; to the reading room and the rest rooms, to the billiard room, the very large dining room, everything reveals art, but severe art.” Everything was comfortable, as is conceived today in luxury, charming hotels. The rooms direct their gaze towards the blue sea of the ocean and on its southern side the view reaches, on clear days, the beautiful La Orotava Valley, the mountain range of Las Cañadas, the natural wonder of the island, Teide, and the gardens in the foreground, with walks and wide avenues so that carriages can circulate through them, horse races and rings can be held. There were grass fields for tennis, croquet and other games played by distinguished foreign tourists. But the same thing happened to the Taoro Hotel as to those “delicious winter residences for invalids and lovers of pleasure and joy” in France and Italy at the end of the 18th century and the last decades of the 19th century, which were widely overshadowed by their social and leisure aspects. In fact, although it seems that therapy is presented as the primary objective, since health services are installed especially for the sick, medical care, nurses, and even the orientation of the colonnade towards the south was taken into account to protect the sick from the cold north winds, as the doctors recommended, and although it proclaimed its reason for existing as a sanatorium, from the first moment it announced all kinds of amenities as a lure to attract both those who traveled for health reasons and those who did so for reasons of health. leisure and pleasure. For this reason, halls were built for dances and card games. Bridge championships were organized in one of its splendid halls. Once a week a dance was held “much to the chagrin of those older people who used it as a card room every night.” Dances that sometimes lasted until the early hours of the morning, which, like the one described by the newspaper El Valle de Orotava, had 192 people, with little participation from the foreign colony, since the dances “were given almost exclusively for the solace of those families.” who, absent from their country, need, in addition to the benefits of the climate, the benefit of distraction, indispensable food. e of the spirit.” However, despite organizing itself as a tourist distraction, the hotel's foreigners "seem to avoid attending entertainment where they do not master their language, nor impose their customs." Improvised dances were frequent when occasions required it. Contrary to what had happened in the first years at the Orotava Grand Hotel, the Taoro hotel became the meeting place of the island bourgeoisie with the distinguished British tourist. Now the distinguished members of high society, the “Spanish gentlemen and ladies,” begin to attend. English was the prestigious tourist and tourism was practiced by a minority of prosperous and educated individuals, bearers of a culture, ways of life and tastes that made the small elites of Tenerife, and particularly those of the La Orotava Valley, feel attracted. . For the local elite, the Taoro Hotel soon became the center of social elegance, leisure for the wealthy classes and an ideal place to establish relationships that marked distinction, where they even went to learn to play the new sports that the distinguished Foreign tourists knew what tennis was like. It was a luxury hotel that attracted wealthy people both foreign and local. From an economic point of view, good prospects are predicted for society, since after the first years of construction of the hotel, the number of visitors and stays increase. The movement of travelers in the first two years was relatively good. From July 1, 1891 to June 30, 1892 it was 487 and the following year, from July 1, 1892 to June 30, 1893 it was 644, which represented an increase of 157 guests. The number of stays also increased in the same periods, going from 11,689 to 14,296 days. But the income that was generated was being seriously absorbed by the amount of interest on the obligations that was increasingly increasing due to the enormous cost of the construction of the hotel, gardens and fields to practice sports, for some it was a million. pesetas 6,010 euros , that is, double the capital initially planned (500,000 pesetas or 3,005 euros) and for others, such as the British Margaret D'Este, it was about three million pesetas 18,030 euros . The seriousness of the situation led the Board of Directors of the Taoro Company Limited in 1891 to propose to its partners the issuance of new shares to cover the deficits. The proposal was not followed by everyone, and the company settled for issuing bonds, first of 150,000 pesetas 901.52 euros and then of 400,000 pesetas 2,404 euros . And since this amount was still not enough to carry out all of the works that still had to be carried out, it was necessary to turn to partners with greater financial solvency to take other amounts. Some works, those on the sides, that were delayed due to non-compliance with the deadlines given by their contractor Nicolás Álvarez, since they had to be finished on December 23, 1892 and at his request they were extended until February 28, 1893 but that, without However, it would not finish until July, with the consequent damage it caused to the company because it was forced to limit the entry of guests due to not having rooms. But if the movement of the Taoro hotel was relatively good until 1893, with the company smiling on the most well-founded hopes of a successful march, although the necessary profits would not be obtained, it would be in the following year when a downward trend began, in a few moments of enormous company expenses. Indeed, after the enormous financial efforts to complete the building and complete its furniture, the cholera epidemic imported for the first time in the autumn of 1894 caused the cutting of communications with Europe, sowing mourning and desolation in the European countries, with dire consequences for the islands and in particular for the Taoro Company, which had to cancel the orders that had arrived. A very hard blow. From July 1, 1893 to June 30, 1894, income was 60,024.44 pesetas 360.75 euros and, however, only the expenses for lighting, provisions, salaries and laundry were 59,945.44 pesetas 360.28 euros . That is, the balance shows a difference in favor of 78 pesetas 0.47 euros . The occupancy rate in the high seasons, from January to April, was only 15% and the maximum rate would be reached in the 1895-1896 season, with 18%. The average occupancy that it would reach was 51% from 1894 to 1902. The hotel profits are not enough and as the seasons go by, the income per tourist decreases, going from an income of 100 pesetas 0.6 euros per visitor in 1894-1895 at the low amount of 35-45 pesetas 0.21-0.27 euros between 1899 and 1904. The crisis intensifies and nervousness spreads. The oversizing of the hotel, the appearance of tuberculin against the tuberculosis bacillus, the heavy travel from the capital of the island to the Valley through defective roads, as well as the interest of a large number of tourists who They preferred villas or boarding houses to the Taoro hotel for economic reasons, or the emergence of new hotel establishments in other parts of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, made the Taoro hotel company a failure. All of this made the board of directors think about selling the hotel in 1901, ten years after its inauguration. The economic panorama surrounding the Taoro Company at the beginning of 1905 could not be more serious, since the alarm had gone off and the socio-labor situation was becoming unsustainable. The company is experiencing the most delicate stage in its recent history; even the hotel workers are threatening to lock themselves up until they receive their back wages. The Taoro Company Ltd. begins to be insolvent and unable to face them with its own means. It is in this situation, especially serious, when the manager of the Woermann Line, a German shipping company, in turn representative of several shipping companies, and supplier of coal and water, with its own mechanical workshops and trailer in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, becomes interested in the Taoro hotel and contacts people who might be interested in Germany. In May 1905, Víctor Eduardo Pérez Ventoso, one of the most representative shareholders, received a letter from the German doctor and general secretary of the International Anti-Tuberculosis Association and prominent member of the German Red Cross, Gotthold Pannwitz, requesting the lease of the hotel for one year with purchase option at the end of the year. Dr. Gotthold Pannwitz was a collaborator at the Kais. Gesundlieitsamt (Imperial Health Service) and served as medical professor of the military high command, Geheimer Sanitátsrat. Encouraged by the welcoming attitude of the board of the Taoro Company, in July 1905 Dr. Gotthold Pannwitz formed a company in Charlottenburg (Germany), called the Kurhaus Betriebs Gesellschaft with an initial capital of 150,000 German marks (at the exchange rate about 195,000 pesetas 1,171 .97 euros (approximately) which later managed to increase to 300,000 marks. The company was made up of 18 members, among whom Gotthold Pannwitz himself stood out for the amount invested with 75,000 marks, Dr. Hoffa from Berlin with 35,000 marks and Adolph Woermann from Hamburg, owner of Woermann Line, with 20,000 marks, which leads us to assume who was the one who told Pannwitz and others about the Taoro Hotel. Contacts for an agreement were made by letter between Víctor Eduardo Pérez Ventoso on behalf of the Taoro Company Ltd. and Gotthold Pannwitz as a representative of the Kurhaus Betriebs Gesellschaft and among the few demands was that of an entry deposit of £1,000 that the company German would have to deposit in Henry Wolfson's bank. But as the talks neared their end, British maneuvers were already underway to prevent the hotel from falling into German hands. The number of German tourists in the first five years of the 20th century was increasing, never higher than the British, but many hotels were in the hands of Germans, especially in Tenerife. In fact, the German prominence of Canarian tourism begins. A role in Canarian tourism that was not viewed favorably by the British community in the Canary Islands, and in this sense it must be understood that the German-British rivalry in old Europe was transferred to the islands, and it should not be surprising that it affected the Puerto de la Cross. For this reason, Farrow S. Bellamy, manager of Elder, Dempster & Co. in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, told Carlos H. Hamilton, second shareholder of the Taoro Company, that he was interested in purchasing the hotel, but in To the extent that it was only a comment and the person leading the conversations was Víctor Eduardo Pérez Ventoso, the negotiations with the Germans were advancing, to such a point that the lease deed was already prepared. It is then that Edward Laurence sends a letter from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Víctor's brother, Jorge Pérez Ventoso, letting him know that Alfred L. Jones, major shareholder of Elder, Dempster & Co., had telegraphed to Farrow S. Bellamy showing his rejection and concern that the Taoro hotel is going to be handed over to the Germans. Victor suggests to Carlos H. Hamilton, “in favor of selling now rather than in a year,” to speak, with the greatest reserve, to Farrow S. Bellamy and “ask him if he is willing to give £35,000 now, that way we could "We must make ourselves strong in the guarantee that we have requested of £1,000 and if we do not give it, we would end up with them and thus sell to Alfred L. Jones." From the comment it is deduced that there was not much hope of reaching an agreement with the Germans, since the Negotiations were full of distrust towards the Kurhaus, “but they were determined to reach an agreement with the Germans, since they had no other buyers,” according to Víctor Eduardo Pérez Ventoso. It follows that the British response must have been negative. The conversations with the Germans crystallized in August 1905 with the lease of the Taoro Hotel to the German doctor Gotthold Pannwitz for the amount of £2,000 per year (65,600 pesetas 394.26 euros approximately) for a period of one year, with an option to purchase . In May 1906, negotiations for the purchase began through Rudolf Schaper, representative of the German company, and Víctor Eduardo Pérez Ventoso, representing the local company. Once the lease term had expired, on July 30, 1907, both companies decided to make a private purchase and sale contract through which the Taoro Company Ltd. sold the hotel building, gardens, fixtures and furniture to the Kurhaus Betriebs Gesellschaft. for the amount of £37,500 (1,200,000 pesetas 7,212 euros approximately), of which, £4,000 was paid in cash, that is, at the same time the operation was carried out, and the difference would be paid in the year 1913. To guarantee the payment of the remaining deferred amount, a mortgage would be taken out at an interest of 6% per year. The purchase had been made under a private contract and not in a public deed to avoid paying the heavy taxes for the transfer, according to the words of the British vice-consul in Puerto de la Cruz, Thomas M. Reid. When the hotel passes into German hands it changes its name, it is no longer called the Taoro Hotel and is named Kurhaus Humboldt (Humboldt Sanatorium or also the Humboldt Hotel) and the board of directors is occupied by Germans. Three years after owning the Taoro hotel, in the summer of 1908 Gotthold Pannwitz rented the beautiful house of the lawyer and attorney Juan de la Cruz González in the Plaza de Candelaria in the summer of 1908 for the amount of 7,800 pesetas (46.88 euros) annually. Santa Cruz to establish the Orotava hotel. The hotel was accredited as the best in the island's capital. It had a cafe, restaurant and billiard room. It stood out for its excellent cuisine and the enormous variety of wines. An initiative that had to be not viewed very well in the capital by members of the British community. But the tension between the German management of the Humboldt Hotel and the English guests, on the one hand, and the unrest between the German and British tourists, on the other, manifests itself in irritating tones in the place. The English of Puerto de la Cruz complained to their consul because the Germans seemed to satisfy the desires and tastes of their compatriots more. Gotthold Pannwitz became odious among the English because he apparently cut off access to the Anglican Church, located in the hotel gardens, to members of the British community. Any slightest incident was cause for serious confrontations. Under this atmosphere of restlessness and irritation, in 1909 the Germans carried out an initiative on island soil that would be seen as an espionage operation by Germany. The Germans became interested in Las Cañadas to carry out a series of aerostatic scientific experiments and the solar effects on tuberculosis. On February 5, 1909, Dr. Jorge Pérez Ventoso, doctor at the Taoro Hotel, presented a request to the La Orotava City Council on behalf of Dr. Gotthold Pannwitz, requesting authorization to install in the vicinity of the Fuente de la Grieta in Las Cañadas some booths to carry out the studies. In a session on February 11, the City Council unanimously agreed to grant authorization so that the German doctor could carry out his experiments. As soon as the positive response was announced, on February 23, the necessary material to make aerial scientific observations on Mount Teide was shipped from the port of Hamburg, followed by a barrack gifted by the Emperor of Germany. After this positive response from the City Council, Gotthold Pannwitz and the scientist Hugo Hergesell, as president of the International Commission for the Exploration of the Upper Atmosphere, began to install two wooden and iron barracks on the leased lands. One was intended as a sanatorium to cure tuberculosis patients and the other as an observatory. But the agreement of the La Orotava City Council that authorized the Germans to install the booths in Las Cañadas raised certain suspicions on the part of the national authorities precisely as a result of a report dated February 23, 1909 by the Spanish ambassador in Berlin, Polo. of Bartolomé, where he informed the Spanish Government that there was a direct relationship between scientific experiments and military purposes, which made it necessary to monitor the activities of the Germans, since it was necessary to prevent them from being establish a permanent observatory in Tenerife without another Spanish one existing, a concern that the Minister of the Interior conveys to the Governor of the Canary Islands. That same year, 1909, the Taoro Company took advantage of the terrible economic situation of the hotel in the hands of the German company to act against it. The low influx of foreign tourists that the hotel suffered in the hands of the Taoro Company also extends under German management, but at this time more acute since many British tourists avoided going to stay at the hotel. This led the Taoro Hotel to a deficit crisis, such that the Kurhaus's credits with accumulated interest arrears amounted in 1909 to the considerable amount of 1,167,352 pesetas 7,015.93 euros . Such an economic situation and in this atmosphere of unrest, payments are not made. Part of the Taoro Company Council was in favor of evicting the German tenants, while others were less inclined to confrontation. The Germans showed a firm desire to put an end to all hostilities. But the most active shareholders against the Germans, led by the Pérez Ventoso brothers, show their refusal of the new promises. The matter is taken to court. The German company presented the private purchase and sale contract of the hotel before the judge, a document that the magistrate considers valid and rules in favor of the Kurhaus. The sentence is challenged by the Taoro Company and the case goes to the Las Palmas Court, which decides that the La Laguna court will take charge. From those moments a noisy lawsuit arose that would continue when the commercial company Hamilton & Co., Pedro Mendizábal y Cifra and Jorge Pérez y Ventoso demanded an embargo on the properties of the Taoro Company for the amounts owed to each of them. one for the credits of 184,012.4 pesetas. 1,105.93 euros , 33,718.26 pesetas. 202.65 euros and 88,347 pesetas. 530.98 euros respectively, plus interest of 90 cents percent on these amounts for the annual returns of 4% since June 30, 1909. The judge of La Orotava is replaced and the ruling of the Court of Las Palmas is in favor of the Taoro Company, which was declared bankrupt by order issued by the Court of First Instance of La Laguna on January 12, 1911. On March 27, the General Shareholders' Meeting meets in La Laguna where it is communicated that the Company had been declared bankrupt. In it, it was agreed by almost total unanimity, with the only exception of Lorenzo Rodríguez Figueroa, to authorize the Board of Directors of the Taoro Company to assign all assets, rights and shares in payment of the credits of each of the creditors. of the same Company and 20% of the credit that each one has against the bankrupt Company. And consequently the Taoro Society was dissolved on November 2, 1911 due to a total loss of share capital and the assignee creditors, with the new proportion of capital that has corresponded to each one, register it pro-indiviso, under the declaration of condoning the rest . Thus, after a notorious and unpleasant legal dispute, Taoro, the Hotel and Villa Construction and Operation Company of the La Orotava Valley, is dissolved. The Germans are evicted and a community of property is formed between a handful of shareholders who will be in charge of continuing to run the Taoro hotel. The hotel would continue to play a prominent role in the island's accommodation offering, but this time played by five shareholders of the defunct company and visible heads of the property community: Carlos J. R. Hamilton Monteverde, Jorge Pérez y Ventoso, Nicolás Dehesa Díaz, Manuel Díaz Cueto (as attorney for León Arozena and Henríquez) and Juan Martí Dehesa. A year later, on July 1, 1912, they leased the hotel to Khristian H. Trenkel – a man who already had under his hands the operation of the Martiánez hotel in El Puerto, the Aguere hotel in La Laguna and the Quisisana hotel in Santa Cruz – . The lease period was 7 years, that is, until June 30, 1919. The rental price for the operation of the hotel was 20,000 pesetas 120 euros the first year, 30,000 pesetas 180 euros the second and third year, and 40,000 pesetas 240 euros the remaining years. The period in the hands of Khristian H. Trenkel was characterized by the loss of prominence of the Taoro hotel due to the problems that had been affecting the sector: the low influx of visitors. The hotel was operated by the German for barely two years. Gustavo Wildpret Duque, son of the former manager of the city's Botanical Garden since his arrival on the island in 1860, Hermann Wildpret, would eagerly rent it in July 1914. But the stagnation and subsequent decline of port activity due to the First World War and then the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, In addition to certain misfortunes, such as the burning of the Taoro Hotel in 1929, Gustavo Wildpret's attempt was a true failure. During part of the Spanish Civil War and World War II he takes over the Taoro Hotel Enrique Talg Schulz. The hotel in the hands of the latter was plagued by constant crises due to the low influx of foreign tourists, despite the fact that the hotel continued to be a meeting place for the island elite. Once the European war ended, in 1945, the hotel was practically inoperative and the Economic Command of the Canary Islands intervened, acquiring 70% of the shares of the community of goods. The command's difficulties in selling it were great and, failing to find a buyer, it transferred its shares to the Island Council of Tenerife, with the condition that it acquire 30% of the remaining shares, whose value was 1,808,843 pesetas 10,871 euros . Starting in January 1950, the lease of the hotel was granted to “Hoteles Unidos” (HUSA), for 20 years. The lease contract was modified in 1958 and its duration was fixed until the end of 1976. But the Cabildo had informed HUSA in 1973 that it did not wish to extend beyond the established date. Given the delicate economic situation that HUSA was going through with the hotel, it decided to terminate the contract in 1975, but not without certain confrontations with the Cabildo to the extent that HUSA wanted the insular institution to contribute 50% of the staff's dismissal compensation. labor. The Cabildo rejected the claim and HUSA handed over the Taoro hotel. From that moment on, the Taoro hotel would definitively stop dedicating itself to hospitality and the Cabildo the following year, 1976, decided to establish the gaming casino.