Mariana, Quezon City
Mariana, is an administrative division in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is an urban barangay in Quezon City in a middle class residential and commercial area known as New Manila, which includes Barangay Mariana and the adjacent Barangay Damayang Lagi. Originally a hinterland along the San Juan River at the outskirts of Manila, the area was purchased from friar lands and other estates by Doña Hemady and Kemal H. Hemady in the 1920s, developing it into the first gated community outside of Manila. Following World War II, the area experienced significant changes with the development of schools, churches, and the commercialization of adjacent areas. New Manila eventually ceased to become a gated community, with only some roads remaining gated at certain hours of the day, spurring the decline of low-density suburbia in favor of mixed-use and higher-density developments. History Prior to the 1920s, the area that would become known as New Manila was once a hilly, underdeveloped hinterland along the shoreline of the San Juan River, at the outskirts of Manila. Eventually, as Manila became crowded, noisy, and polluted, new developments in the nearby San Juan became popular among middle-class families for a much more quiet and peaceful place to live. Thus, the reason it was named New Manila as the place's original settlers moved from Manila. New Manila subdivision In the 1920s, Lebanese immigrant Doña Magdalena Hemady purchased of land from friar lands bought by the Taft Commission as a result of Act No. 1120, also known as the Friar Lands Act of 1904. These lands acquired by Doña Hemady became known as the Magdalena Estate, with among these friar lands was land owned by the Ortigas family, which in turn was previously owned by the Augustinian Order as the Hacienda de Mandaluyon. Around 1922 to 1923, Doña Hemady and her second husband Kemal H. Hemady developed the land into the New Manila Subdivisions as a residential enclave for the elite, becoming the first real estate developer in the country, and establishing what would be the first gated community outside of Manila. The lots along the subdivision's main roads, namely Victoria Avenue, Broadway Avenue, Gilmore Avenue, and Pacific Avenue (now Doña Hemady Avenue) were cut at no less than per corner. On the other hand, lots along the side streets, numbered 1st to 13th after the numbered streets in New York City, measured at approximately each. In 1937, the New Manila area gained recognition as the "Hollywood of the Philippines", being home to Sampaguita Pictures (along Granada Street, now located in Barangay Valencia), as well as its rival, LVN Pictures, being one of the first companies that produced original Filipino films. Post-war developments Throughout the 1940s, being far from Manila, the area was able to survive with minimal ruin during World War II. This has led to increased development throughout the 1950s and 1960s around the area, as schools, churches, hospitals, and other institutions were set up in New Manila. In 1946, the St. Paul University System set