Hammersley Optics Building. Valparaiso - CHILE

Direccion: Calle Esmeralda Nº 1118

This building is acceded to virtually rock Cerro Concepción. Responds to a type of building construction and very practical Likewise, typical of Valparaiso and other Chilean ports. Its construction dates from the mid-nineteenth century and, apparently, was built by one of the greatest masters of carpentry, English or American, which for decades the thirties to sixties, introduced this construction technique.

The building was designed for a mixed use commercial and housing. In 1880 it was acquired by Don Roberto Hammersley, who set the first and second floors of the building its "Modern Optics", considered the oldest in the country. In 1910 his sons inherited the property and Victor Antonio and optics became "Hammersley Optics", a name that remains until today.

The building is distinguished particularly by its narrow front in relation to its height and the depth of their four-story mixed, following the gradual slope of the hill. The facade, walls of wood covered in calamine iron outside, is very simple, attractive living in harmonious and symmetrical arrangement of its elements. The roof is galvanized iron, and the side walls are of masonry. Among its small ornaments include columns attached to modulate the second floor windows and cast iron rails, in artistic design, guillotine windows of the third and fourth floor.

This building, which has retained its original features, is one of the oldest in the nineteenth Valparaíso is still standing and in good condition. Besides its architectural merits, but also emphasizes the singular fact of having belonged for more than one hundred years to a family dedicated to a single turnover.