San Carlos Institute

The San Carlos Institute is a three-story building with a red-tiled roof and a distinctively wide, arched entrance. Cuban exiles founded this school and cultural center in eighteen seventy-one to promote their island's independence from Spain. Jose Marti used this stage to unite the Cuban community and launch his final campaign for freedom. A fire leveled the original wooden structure in nineteen nineteen, and the current building replaced it five years later, keeping the spirit of the original mission alive.