The inhabitants of Puerto Plata boast that
what Puerto Plata does the rest of the Republic does. They point as an
example to their plaza. Formerly the plaza of Dominican cities was a
bare, shadeless tract of ground in the center of the city. Puerto
Plata was the first to plant trees, lay out a garden and provide its
plaza with a music stand. This plaza in the center of the town is the
oldest and prettiest of the city's three public squares and is now
shaded by large, leafy trees and embellished with beautiful flowers
and varicolored bushes. On Sunday nights on this plaza and on Thursday
nights on one of the others, band concerts attract crowds of people,
young and old, who promenade to the strains of the music. The belles
of the city are very handsome and owing to the intermarriage of
natives with foreigners from all parts of the world widely different
types of beauty are to be observed at such concerts.
On one side of the principal plaza is the church, on another stand
side by side the theater, the government building, where the
provincial offices are located, and the city hall, on the first floor
of which is a well-attended school.
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