“With much respect, boss. Always grateful for the work, and even more so in times when it costs so much to put together a mango; but I would prefer that you appoint me to another job. Or well, it will be another time. You have my mother-in-law’s phone number. Any other job that comes out, she calls me. But I don’t want to work in that chalet. “Everyone says that strange things happen there.” Surprise that she shook the routine. The testimony is real. The contractor of a company in charge of renovating the work heard it from Reinaldo.
Disturbing. More coming from Reinaldo; the bricklayer, also a painter, electrician. The kind that cut grass or put membrane on roofs. An all terrain”. Handsome. One of those who don’t put a fierce face on anything. One of those who always look for it. It wasn’t the first time she had heard it. She heard it from Reinaldo. One of those who don’t lie and go to work even with a fever.
Emilio Civit Avenue. “La Emilio Civit”, that wide road in the center of Mendoza that acts as a bridge between a glamorous urban tradition and the stone slopes of the first foothills. Street full of stories. Different from all. Enigmatic artery. Challenging. Contradictory. It begins on the rails of a railway and ends at a gate. And in the middle: one of the many ghosts of Mendoza. “The ghost of the Stoppel Mansion” – Emilio Civit at 348. On the southern sidewalk. To top!
Museum literature
It is likely that Reinaldo did not want to commit the audacity of Mr. Hiram B. Otis, Minister of the United States of America, when he bought Lord Canterville’s old chalet, even though everyone told him that he was doing something crazy. That house was inhabited by a ghost. Lord Canterville himself felt the moral obligation to warn Mr. Otis that even his own family was afraid of living there.
These are other times. It will be another legend. “My lord, replied the minister, I will also keep the furniture and the ghost under inventory,” replied Hiram B. Otis. In other words: “My lord, the minister responded, I will also keep the furniture and the ghost under inventory.” (In: “The Canterville Ghost” by Oscar Wilde. England. 1887).
These are other times. It will be another legend. But there are stories that repeat themselves.
Distant stories of old ghosts
Luis Stoppel knew Mendoza very well. Of a German family, he was born in Chile on July 7, 1862, but when he was older he settled with his parents in Cuyo.
From a young age he was a visionary entrepreneur. He will create a company for the construction of freight and ride carriages that will have powerful clients in Argentina and Chile, while at the same time he will run his own transportation company. He will make fortunes associated with Federico Witestein. Not only will the business be profitable, but the activity will also allow you to relate to the productive sector and the lofty political dimension of Mendoza. Tenders, contracts, transporting workers or materials to the large works that were beginning to be built in the mountains of Mendoza: hotels, water dams, railways, roads, schools, post offices, military garrisons will bring it commercially closer to the spheres of power. The business also allowed him to establish ties with the “jet set” of the time. It was not a question of going to a party at the Social Club (the current Legislature building) or to a wedding in a villa in Lunlunta in any carriage. Only Stoppel had the “limousines” of that time. Therefore, the establishment and jet set could not do without his services.
Look beyond
He was insightful. Pragmatic. He knew that his business would be over soon. The train, the car, the buses would become a ghost that would soon arrive, abruptly eclipsing blood-powered transportation. It is there that the urban legend invaded the scene for the first time.
Fully integrated into the social life of Mendoza, venturing into politics and diplomacy, he was part of a Masonic association dedicated to philanthropy, charitable works, philosophy and the intellectual debate of ideas. How to explain at that time to the superstitious Mendoza world that all that resounding success was not part of a pact, “who knows with whom”? For more. He had just bought a warehouse in Maipú that shortly after completely burned down.
At that time, Luis Stoppel, together with Ana Strassburger (his wife) and children, lived in front of Plaza Cobo (current Plaza San Martín), on the cobblestone Suipacha Street (today Spain). While “Emilio Civit” was still struggling among vacant lots, one or another country house, horses and chickens that were loose. The area was discredited to such an extent that the very popular Tiburcio Benegas street was called “Los Picaros” due to the number of piringundines, gambling dens and brothels that reached the intersection of the road that currently bears the name of Civit. At that time, that stretch of wide footprint that included between Calle del Colegio Nacional (now, Belgrano) and Jarillal (Boulogne Sur Mer) was still called “Sarmiento”.
After all this, taking an abrupt turn in his life, he mysteriously sold everything and went to live in Buenos Aires. He returned after a few years. Mendoza will welcome him until his death. He on July 22, 1947 at 85 years of age. He is buried in the Capital cemetery. The legend of the mansion that bears his name will make him immortal.
Stoppel’s Mansion
Stoppel was a pioneer in thinking of a mansion on that sidewalk. It will mark an urban and architectural hinge in Mendoza, being surprising his sense as a real estate developer since the area did not enjoy any type of services at the beginning of the 20th century.
Construction began in 1910. From the first moment it looked majestic. The work will be directed by Víctor Barabino (a Genoese who lived in Mendoza since 1902) and will be completed in 1912.
The house was built under the chalet typology. It was 23 meters wide and 60 meters deep. The total land included 1,234 meters covered and 2,000 meters of gardens, connecting Emilio Civit with Julio A. Roca Street. To the left was the entrance for carriages and automobiles. The building had two floors. The façade proposes an eclectic game of styles where the notion of “Italian villa” prevails.
The interior is established through a neuralgic center where it connects the ground floor, the first floor and the roof from where ample lighting originates. The building has 30 rooms. It was anti-seismic, a novel feature for the time. A basement will be the place of the archives, some tools, some bottles of wine and, probably, where Luisito, the protagonist of the story, “lived.” Did he live?
Luisito, “The Ghost of Stoppel”
“I will also keep the furniture and the ghost under the inventory.” Sayings of the aforementioned Hiram B. Otis, one of the protagonists of the novel “The Canterville Ghost”. It’s worth remembering. But that story remained distant, although distances and times are shortened in the ghostly dimension of the unknown.
The truth was that Stoppel would be widowed, lose a son, die (1947) and his descendants, a few years later, would sell the mansion to the provincial state (1949). The government of Mendoza will acquire the chalet to install the administrative offices and pediatric and ophthalmological clinics of the Patronato de Menores. That was its headquarters until 1977 when a pronounced crack due to the repercussions of the Caucete (San Juan) earthquake forced it to close.
During that parallel and dark “meanwhile” of the closure, the legend will continue to grow. Two versions constantly revive the protagonist ghost: Luisito.
One version will maintain that in that house the children they housed were occupied to carry out healing experiments and one of them, precisely Luisito, died from an overdose of psychotropic drugs. It would be his spirit that still haunts the house. Although no official records of sheltered children have been found and perhaps, according to reports, the files were destroyed.
“During that time, psychology had a very different vision regarding the concept of madness and treatments. Records from 1962 of the General Archive reveal, for example, that undisciplined children were considered ‘contagious’ to their peers and were medicated and separated from the rest to calm them down. In those same texts there are several complaints against doctors and these procedures, quite common at that time. ‘Order and discipline must be imposed and children’s minds must be occupied to prevent their fantasy from disturbing them,’ specifies one of the minutes. It is also popular that in 1950 the murder of a 9-year-old boy was committed in the mansion by a supposed doctor who worked at the Board of Trustees.” (Marco Bustamante. “The haunted house. The ghosts of the Stoppel mansion.” Chronicle. 2016).
The other version is as macabre as the previous one. Luisito would be Luis Stoppel’s out-of-wedlock son with a maid. Said woman would have died tragically, while Luisito continued performing servitude tasks and living in the basement until he suddenly disappeared. They killed him? Did he commit suicide?
The truth is that according to legend, Luisito’s lost soul continues to roam the mansion.
The Carlos Alonso Museum
After that closure in 1977, the mansion will only be occupied as a warehouse for materials, musical instruments and disused furniture. Fortunately, Mendoza’s cultural management recovered a space for a provincial museum that bears the right name of the very distinguished Mendoza and world-renowned painter: Carlos Alonso.
The lights mysteriously go out, whispers and whistles come from nowhere, the paintings move, the wood creaks, the doors open by themselves, crying is heard from afar and thousands of comments from neighbors make Luisito remain as present as ever. in popular culture, constituting an undeniable part of the Mendoza belief system. Reinaldo had told the company’s contractor. Reinaldo, the one who never makes a fierce face at anyone. Reinaldo, the one who doesn’t lie: “Strange things happen there.”
History, culture and urban legends are alive in Mendoza. They are waiting at the “Carlos Alonso Museum” at the Stoppel Mansion – Emilio Civit 348 in the City of Mendoza. Do not worry. Luisito is an ally of those who value art and never forget.
