In mid-1975 Jack Manning, President of the American Chamber of Commerce and General Manager of the local Ford Dealership, Mantrade, wrote to A.V.H. Hardendorp asking him to recount his recollections of Manila. “AV” as he became known, was a highly regarded, American writer and historian. “AV” arrived in Manila in 1917, age twenty, as a Thomasite Teacher. Readers will enjoy what “AV” had to say about Manila Circa 1917-1920. He reports “a compact, well planned, beautiful, clean and orderly city of some 300 thousand”; further lamenting its deteriorated state in 1975. What would he say today?

(Source: American Historical Collection at Ateneo University)

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