Sentry Box PR (Puerto Rico) by Eliza Bellows King Dooley

Sentry Box PR (Puerto Rico) by Eliza Bellows King Dooley

Sentry Box PR (Puerto Rico)

Eliza Bellows King Dooley

Title

Sentry Box PR (Puerto Rico)

 
Artist
Year
c. 1940  
Technique
etching 
Image Size
3 7/8 x 2 15/16" platemark 
Signature
pencil signed, lower right margin 
Edition Size
not stated 
Annotations
pencil titled, lower left 
Reference
 
Paper
cream laid 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
LIBU114 
Price
SOLD
Description

This etching of a stone sentry box depicts the famous 17th century Spanish "Garita del Diablo" -- or "Devil's Sentrybox" -- located on Fort San Cristobal in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fort features several sentry boxes, built to protect guards from the elements as they kept watch.

The Devil's Sentrybox is perched at the triangular convergence of two 150 foot high walls, built on a spit of land that juts north into the sea. Nightly sentry calls, used to check on the safety of their fellow watchkeepers, were often lost in the wind and fog that battered the lonely outpost.

Legend says that a guard named Sanchez did not answer the sentry calls one windy night; when his fellow soldiers came looking for him in the morning, Sanchez was gone, with only his rifle and uniform remaining. The Spanish soldiers feared that the devil had snatched him, hence the name Garita del Diablo.