Before Monteverde had its current name, this house was already here
Built around 1945 by the Zamora family, the house we know today as Río Chante is part of a much larger story than that of an old building. Since then, it has been part of the life of the community and, over the course of nearly eight decades, has served many different purposes: home, meeting place, workplace, medical care facility, offices, workshops, and cultural center.
Río Chante is one of the places that best preserves and connects these different stages of local history.
Monteverde Before 1951
Before 1951, around the crossing of Cuecha stream, there was a center of community activity connected by roads and trails to the mountain communities and Guacimal. There were farms, a sawmill, a sugar mill, and a small hydroelectric plant.
The Ugalde family house was also nearby, on the site where the cheese factory now stands. Over time, the house served as a small grocery store, a school, and a gathering place for the community. And, of course, the Zamora family house, today known as Río Chante, was also part of this landscape.
The Day a New Chapter Began: a Refuge on The First Day
On April 19, 1951, a small group of explorers traveled on horseback through these lands in search of a place where several Quaker families migrating from the United States could settle, they found a territory that was already inhabited and active.
To reach the area, they crossed Cuecha stream on a wooden plank bridge. Throughout the day, they explored pastures, roads, and properties, evaluating the possibilities of establishing another community there.
According to John Campbell’s account, recorded in the book Jubilee, the first rainstorm of the season arrived that afternoon. The explorers found shelter under the covered porch of the Zamora house. After returning to Heredia, they recommended these lands as the place where their group could settle. On May 16, 1951, they adopted the name Monteverde.
Over time, the house was acquired by Arthur and Clara Rockwell. The Monteverde Institute recognizes it as the oldest standing structure in the mountains and as the first house used by the Quaker families who settled here.
For this reason, Río Chante holds a special place in Monteverde’s history. It witnessed the encounter between an existing Costa Rican community and a new group of people who arrived to settle in the mountains.
A House That Continued to Serve the Community
The importance of Río Chante is not limited to what happened in 1951. In the decades that followed, the house and its surroundings continued to serve Monteverde.
It was a home, a meeting place, and a workspace. It also served as a place for medical care and a pharmacy associated with Marvin Rockwell. The house was purchased by the Monteverde Institute, where it housed its offices.
In other words, the function of the house has changed over time, but one thing has remained constant: Río Chante has been a space for community life.
That continuity is also reflected in the celebration of Monteverde Day. On the 75th anniversary of that April 19, 1951, Río Chante participated in organizing the commemoration, proposing that the date be remembered not simply as the arrival of foreigners, but as an encounter between people of different backgrounds that marked the beginning of a new chapter of coexistence and community organization.
From a Community Concern to a Formal Organization
Following the 2007 global economic crisis, the Monteverde Institute sold the house to a foreign couple who obtained a loan from the Banco Nacional of Costa Rica (BNCR) with the intention of converting it into a yoga center. Unable to meet the mortgage payments, they abandoned both the project and the house.
For the community, this marked one of the most difficult periods in the history of Río Chante. A place deeply connected to Monteverde’s past was left empty and vulnerable, gradually losing the role it once played in community life.
In 2016, repeated acts of vandalism at the deteriorating house and growing security concerns led neighbors to contact the BNCR and request its intervention. At that time, the bank had initiated the process of recovering the property title, but the procedure was complicated by the absence of the signatures of the previous owners.
This situation united the community around a broader question: how could a future for Río Chante be secured that honored its history while also allowing it to continue serving Monteverde? The vision that emerged was to restore the house as a local “third place”: a safe and welcoming space where residents and visitors could gather, learn, create, and participate in community life. The intention was also to preserve its cultural, educational, and environmental functions and entrust its future to a local organization.
This effort led to the formal establishment of the Riochante Monteverde Cultural Center Association in 2023 as a local non-profit organization. Its overall purpose is “to promote the creation of a cultural space for the residents and visitors of the community,” with an emphasis on protecting the historic house, offering free activities, and providing an accessible space for the community.
In 2024, the BNCR regained the title to the property. Throughout the years of uncertainty, Río Chante was not left completely abandoned: residents and local organizations maintained their presence on the property and assumed responsibility for its ongoing care.
Today, that commitment has transformed a difficult chapter in the house’s history into an opportunity to ensure that Río Chante remains part of this community’s future.
A cultural reality that can be measured
Río Chante is not simply a proposal for the future. It is an existing community cultural center that is already active.
During 2025, it received 2,184 visits and hosted 50 cultural, educational, environmental, and community activities. In addition, 5,760 hours were dedicated to monitoring, on-site presence, and site maintenance. Between 2017 and 2025, the property recorded 10,192 visits in a county with a population of 4,155, according to the latest national census.
These figures represent much more than numbers. They demonstrate how the community is already using the space and the amount of work required to keep it active and protected.
This effort has been made possible through volunteer work, donations, and the collaboration of numerous local individuals and organizations.
Where Culture and Conservation Meet
Río Chante’s value is also environmental.
Since 1997, the property has been protected by a conservation easement intended to safeguard the forest, the spring, and Cuecha stream, as well as its role as a biological corridor. The protection framework also allows for educational activities, community trails, environmental monitoring, and student participation.
Since 2009, the biologist Luisa Moreno of the Monteverde Institute has used the property as an environmental monitoring site. The ReVerdes group of the Monteverde Reserve also conducts monitoring several times a year. Students from Monteverde Friends School participate through their short courses, helping with trail maintenance and other observation, stewardship, and conservation activities.
Río Chante facilitates these activities and maintains a constant presence on the property. In this way, it gives practical continuity to a vision of conservation and education that has been present on the property for nearly three decades.
A Community Priority
The value of Río Chante has also received institutional recognition.
The Monteverde Municipal Public Cultural Policy 2025-2035 identifies Río Chante as a cultural center, a site of heritage interest, and a space for cultural organization and promotion. Among its proposed actions is the “rescue and development of partnerships for the use of Río Chante and other spaces.”
The policy also establishes a particularly relevant priority: “Support the cultural spaces that already exist.”
For the Asociación Riochante Centro Cultural de Monteverde, that support should take the form of partnerships that strengthen the community work already underway while respecting the autonomy with which Río Chante has been cared for and managed.
The Future of a Living History
Today, the property belongs to BNCR, and its future has yet to be secured.
However, its historical, cultural, environmental, and community value is not simply a matter of the past. It is supported by decades of use, by the work of those who have cared for the place, and by the activities that continue to take place there.
Preserving Río Chante does not mean freezing a house in the past. It means protecting a place that has accompanied different stages of Monteverde’s history and that continues to play a role in its present. It means preserving the memory of those who were here before, recognizing the encounter between different communities that helped shape Monteverde as it exists today, and, above all, allowing new generations to continue gathering, learning, creating, and caring for this place.
Río Chante is not simply a historic house. It is a house that, nearly 80 years after it was built, continues to serve the community.
How to support?
The Asociación Riochante Centro Cultural de Monteverde has requested the Ministry of Culture and Youth to recognize and protect the heritage value of the property.
We invite those who believe in the history, culture, environment, and autonomous community spaces of Monteverde to learn about, sign, and share the petition:
Click here: Request to the Ministry of Culture and Youth
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