THE historic Home Economics building of the West Central Elementary School in Dagupan City where General Douglas Mac Arthur stayed after he landed in the Dagupan
Blue Beach on Jan. 9, 1945 to begin the liberation of Luzon is now being restored through the initiative of the National Historical Institute (NHI).

The restoration work was inspected on Wednesday by Rey Inovero, NHI chief, and his assistant Louie Valerio, an architect; together with Dagupan City Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and Carmen Prieto, the city’s heritage commissioner.

The H.E. building is one of the declared heritage sites in Dagupan City, being one of the finest legacies of the past to the present and future Dagupeños.

Old folk said the H.E. building quartered General Mac Arthur for a few days till the landing of all his troops in the beach of the Lingayen Gulf was completed.

After that, they moved towards the south and retook Manila from the Japanese.

Among the mementos left by Mac Arthur in the H.E. building were an oversized bed, bed sheets and utensils all by the American general during his short stay in the H.E. building.

As one of the city’s heritage sites, the H.E. building is now among the top tourist attraction in Dagupan City.

At the Dagupan City Museum, a few meters east, were photographs secured by the city from the U.S. War Department showing Mac Arthur and his staff walking along the sandy shores of Bonuan and him (Mac Arthur) doing an inspection in one of the streets of Dagupan along with a provincial official.

As the landing site of the American liberation forces in Luzon, Dagupan owns one of the only few monuments of General Douglas Mac Arthur on Luzon soil.