In 1986, the Ponce Municipal Government purchased the
Castillo Serrallés to turn it into the Museum of Puerto Rican Music. However, the idea of turning Castillo Serrallés into a music museum was subsequently discarded. In 1991 the first headquarters of the Museo de la Musica Puertorriqueña were located at 70 Cristina Street in what is now the
Centro Cultural de Ponce. The pastel villa building was built by a well known architect named
Juan Bertoli Calderoni, who also built many other buildings throughout Puerto Rico. It was designed in the neo-classic architectural style, specifically a French style architecture. In 1996, the
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) moved the Music Museum to its current location at Isabel and Salud streets. The current structure, acquired by the ICP, was built as the residence of the Serrallés-Nevárez family. Félix Juan Serrallés, who married Francisca Nevárez, was a prominent local industrialist, and himself the grandson of prominent businessman
Juan Serrallés, the founder of the
Destilería Serrallés rum company. This house on Calle Isabel was the Serallés family's everyday downtown Ponce residence, as compared to their hilltop
Serralles Castle residence. The back yard of the property still preserves an outdoors bar-like area complete with the Destileria Serrallés and
Don Quixote logo. Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña is not to be confused with Museo de la Música, in
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, also known as Museo de la Música Rafael Ithier, an $18 million museum project by the Guaynabo municipal government which failed to open and was abandoned in March 2020. ==Museum==