Empire of Portland Cement, Concrete Blocks, and Specialty Shingles

The article examines the close collaboration between Protestant missionaries and expatriate American construction entrepreneurs in the early 1900s in Puerto Rico. The construction work done by the Czech American architect Antonin Nechodoma (1877–1928), the builder Frank Bond Hatch (1871–1925), and Protestant missionaries represent an instance of this collaboration, which led to the adoption of Portland cement products in the construction of church buildings (Beatriz del Cueto, 2016). Nechodoma’s contribution to the development of a religious architectural language on behalf of Protestant missionaries has been largely neglected. While Nechodoma’s figure has gathered popular attention of late, the aim of this article is to situate changes in the design and construction of ecclesiastic structures associated with Methodism within the larger context of American imperialist expansionism and political change in Puerto Rico. Examined collectively, the new religious buildings of the period 1898–c. 1927 reveal the implantation of a new religious colonialist architectural aesthetic.