This vintage real photo postcard features a building in Isabela de Sagua, Cuba. The building is surrounded by water. One must walk across a dock in order to enter or exit the building. A sign on the building identifies it as “Aduana Sagua Grande”. The english translation reveals that the building is a customs house. Isabela de Sagua is a small town which was once one of Cuba’s major ports. Presently, it is a fishing enclave. The town is also referred to as Isabella and it possesses the nickname of “The Cuban Venice”. The village was founded in 1842. It is located in Cuba’s Villa Clara Province. In the 1800’s, Isabela was a very prosperous town. It was an import/export center and was very engaged in the sugar trade. At one point, there were over a hundred sugar plantations in the region. The village was famous for its stilted houses perched above the ocean. The poor economy and the pounding it experienced from multiple hurricanes, left few of these houses standing. The demise of the Cuban economy led to the demise of Isabela’s “glory days”. The “AZO” stamp box on this postcard indicates that it dates to sometime between 1910 and 1930. The photographer of this image is F. Carrandi. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
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