The Official Coffee Exchange opened in 1914, when coffee was Brazil’s main source of wealth. On September 7, 1922, as part of the celebrations of the Brazilian Independence Centennial, the Coffee Palace – Palácio do Café – was inaugurated, unfinished.
Alterations of the original project during construction, the excellence of the professionals involved and the use of luxury materials took their toll on the budget and called for three loans. But the building fulfilled its purpose – to assert, in a grand way, the importance of coffee to the Brazilian economy.
Companhia Construtora de Santos, founded by Roberto Cochrane Simonsen, was the company responsible for construction. The building's outstanding features include a 120-ft tall clock tower and the statues above the main entrance (photo).
To the right of the museum's name, Ceres, goddess of agriculture, looks out to sea and watches as Brazilian coffee departs to international markets. To her right, Mercury, god of commerce, looks at the city of Santos as it grows - the closest end of a trail of development that would raise São Paulo state and particularly the capital, São Paulo, to the forefront of Brazilian economy.
