One hundred years ago, houses like these were everywhere in the Historical Center of Merida. Many of these grand Merida homes survive, but most of them are owned and renovated, matching or surpassing their original glory.

Still standing and waiting for its rebirth, Casa Tesoro, in the popular Santa Ana District, sits just two blocks from Santa Ana Park. Santa Ana Park is becoming the center of the Art District in Merida, with one large and very active government-run museum, Centro de Artes Visuales, and a bevy of surrounding privately-owned art galleries and furniture stores.

Santa Ana Park has a local neighborhood church, a market selling fruit, meat and other daily necessities, a collection of outdoor eating establishments and local businesses like a hardware store, coffee shops and even a gas station... all within walking distance. A few blocks to the north is the grand avenue of Merida: the Paseo de Montejo. And five blocks south is the city center, the Plaza Grande, with its shops, churches, museums, galleries and restaurants.

Casa Tesoro enjoys one of the best locations in Merida.

What it also has, which is a difficult thing to find, is an amazing historical structure. The house is entered through a wide doorway, with a floor of paving tiles, old tiles designed for endurance and traction in slippery conditions. This was once a carriage entrance, but has the potential to be a garage, a rare thing for an old colonial mansion.

All the other rooms have floors of beautifully-preserved mosaico tiles that probably arrived from France as ballast on a ship. The colors of the tiles are unusual, and the designs are unusually intricate. Each room flaunts an 18-foot, wood-beamed ceiling, with original wooden doors to match. These doors are probably made from local cedar, a tropical hardwood that resists insects, as they have lasted for the many years that this house has been empty.

Other parts of the original home have not been so lucky. While the four front rooms are pristine, with tile floors, painted walls, original hammock hooks, original beamed ceilings and original iron protectores outside the windows, there appear to have been other rooms behind the house that have not survived.

The current owner cleared the brush and invasive tree growth from the house that is still standing today. At the edge of the huge arched and covered loggia, the mosaico tile floors continue on into a layer of almost a foot of dirt and rock. The foundations of several walls halfway back on the property have led the owners to believe that these floors may extend that far as well.

The large plot of land behind the house will provide its new owners with plenty of room to build more rooms, a swimming pool and a garden. Once renovated, this house can indeed again become a living treasure: an elegant home and garden in an excellent location.

As owners of many properties in Merida, the current owners are willing to sell after realizing that they cannot maintain such a large property for their personal residence. They have priced Casa Tesoro to sell, so that the house can fulfill its destiny. Despite its years of neglect, the house is surprisingly well-preserved and deserves to come to life.