The Visayan Electric Company sponsored in 1996 a series published in The Republic News entitled “Cebu Then and Now”. It featured old photographs of prewar Cebu City and contrasted it with more recent takes.

One of the photos that appeared in the series showed in the background of Warwick-Barracks (now Carbon Market) and Plaza Washington (now Freedom Park), an old smokestack of the Bryan and Landon electric plant. The smokestack or Chimenea was said to be so tall it was visible from miles out to the sea.

The photo was taken in 1906 during the arrival of the Philippines’ American governor general to Cebu. It was borrowed by VECO from the Dr. Galileo Medalle are photograph collection.

The Bryan and Landon plant, an old camarin, had only at that time an antiquated Corliss steam engine, which supplied the relatively limited power of the former Municipio de Cebu.

R.R. Landon and Bryant were two American soldiers who stayed in the Philippines after Admiral George Dewey withdrew most of the American troops. Landon and Bryant pioneered in electricity in Cebu.

It was in the Ermita district where they established the city’s first electric power plant in 1905. A year later, they expanded and installed more electric posts, many of which are evident in the pre-war photos shown in the Veco sponsored series.

A street crossing Junquera extension is presently named after one of the electricity pioneers, R.R. Landon.

Source: Ybarra