Much of Polanco stands on what was once a single property. Before the avenues, apartment towers, and embassies, the land west of Chapultepec belonged to one large estate that raised silkworms, pressed olive oil, and fed the horses of passing armies. That estate was the Hacienda de los Morales, and while its fields long ago became city streets, the manor house at its center is still standing. Today it operates as a restaurant and a protected heritage site, one of the few places in the neighborhood that predates the neighborhood itself.
From a Colonial Land Grant to a Single Estate (1526 to 1548)
The story begins around 1526, when the land formed part of the encomienda of Tacuba — a colonial grant that gave a Spaniard rights over indigenous territory and labor. Hernán Cortés awarded it to Doña Isabel de Moctezuma, eldest daughter of the emperor Moctezuma II, in connection with her marriage to a Spanish official.
Over the following decades the parcel passed through several hands. Indigenous leaders of Tacuba sold it to a Spaniard acting for a royal magistrate, Lorenzo de Tejada, who spent years buying up the surrounding land. On April 20, 1548, Tejada sold the assembled property to Pedro de Sandoval, a resident of the mining town of Taxco. Sandoval merged it with an adjacent plot, and the combined estate took the name it would keep for centuries: the Hacienda de San Juan de Dios de los Morales.
Mulberries and Silk Behind the Name (1540 to 1645)
The estate's name came from its trees. Around 1540, thousands of mulberry trees were planted here, part of a gift of some 4,000 from Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Mulberry leaves feed silkworms, and the grove turned the property into a center of silk production.
Silk was one of the few new industries the Spanish crown actively encouraged in the colony; grapes and olives, by contrast, were restricted to protect producers back in Spain. The mulberries gave the place more than an industry. They gave it a lasting name: by 1645, documents were already calling it simply Los Morales.
The Manor House and the Olive-Oil Years (1647 to 1885)
In 1647, the estate's owners began building the manor house that still anchors the property, along with the outbuildings clustered around it. Most of those structures survive today.
Just north of the main house stood an oil mill, one of the first of its kind in New Spain and, in time, one of the estate's most important operations. As colonial restrictions eased, olive groves spread across the grounds, and the mill pressed oil that reached its height in the nineteenth century. The Cuevas family, who bought the estate in 1880, expanded production; their olive oil took a top prize at the 1885 World's Fair in New Orleans.
The landscape also drew painters. José María Velasco, Daniel Thomas Egerton, and Conrad Wise Chapman all recorded its views of the Valley of Mexico, a reminder that this was once open country on the edge of the city.
A Stage for Independence and Revolution (1821 to 1915)
Because it sat on the road into the capital, the hacienda kept turning up at pivotal moments. In September 1821, as three centuries of Spanish rule came to an end, Agustín de Iturbide, the leader of the independence forces, and Juan O'Donojú, the last authority sent by the crown, met repeatedly over breakfast at the estate, hosted by its owner, José de Garay. Much of the negotiating that closed out the colonial period happened at that table.
A generation later, during the U.S. invasion of 1846 to 1848, General Juan Álvarez used the hacienda as a base and lodging for troops preparing guerrilla resistance against the American army.
The estate saw war again in the Revolution. In December 1914, Francisco "Pancho" Villa's forces took nearby Tacuba, and his northern cavalry camped in the alfalfa fields of Los Morales. The crop fed the horses, and the estate's thick walls made a ready stronghold. The Cuevas family, who owned the property, invited Villa to stay at their home in the city; days later he sealed the Pact of Xochimilco with Emiliano Zapata, one of the high points of the revolutionary alliance.
How One Estate Became Polanco (1921 to 1944)
As the twentieth century arrived, the city began to swallow the estate. Before it was subdivided for good, the owner Eduardo Cuevas found new uses for the old buildings: the mill was rented out to make breakfast cereal, the granary served a national agricultural bank, and the stables were leased to a milkman.
The land itself was steadily sold off and broken up. In 1921 a development company bought a vast tract of former hacienda land and laid out the garden-style subdivisions that became Lomas de Chapultepec. When Eduardo Cuevas died in the 1920s, his will split what remained into five parts, and in 1944 more than half of that was expropriated over unpaid taxes. Piece by piece, the fields that had grown mulberries and alfalfa turned into Polanco, Anzures, Irrigación, and part of Las Lomas — today some of the most valuable real estate in the country. The manor house, on its own protected parcel, was left standing in the middle of it all.
From Private Home to Restaurant (1965 to 1967)
The house stayed a private residence until the 1960s. In 1965 its owners decided to turn it into a restaurant, and after a remodeling led by the architects Luis and Ignacio Landa, Hacienda de los Morales opened its dining rooms to the public on April 14, 1967. It has served meals ever since. In the late 1980s the main dining room was enlarged and a set of event salons and a garden kiosk were added, giving the old estate a second life as a place for weddings, banquets, and large celebrations.
What Survives, and the Restaurant Today
What survives is unusually complete. The main house, the old mill, and a stone bridge are catalogued by the national heritage institute, INAH, and one of Germán Gedovius's paintings still hangs in a room inside. The kitchen, now run by executive chef Benigno Fernández, leans on Mexican classics — mole poblano, chiles en nogada in season, tortilla soup, ribeye tacos — served across breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Politicians and celebrities have long been regulars; Luis Miguel is known to have taken late suppers in a private room after concerts at the nearby Auditorio Nacional.
The site's future has still drawn pressure: in 2023, the Congress of Mexico City dismissed a proposal that would have allowed denser development, including a hotel, on the property.
For an estate whose fields became entire neighborhoods, the striking thing is that its house is still standing. Polanco grew up around a working farm, and at the center of it the old manor remains — older than the streets around it, and still setting tables.
Good to Know
Where: In Polanco, at Juan Vázquez de Mella 525, with free on-site parking — a rarity in this part of the city.
When: Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and available for banquets and events of 10 to 1,000 people. Reservations are made through the venue's website.
Price: Upscale, special-occasion dining.
Address: Juan Vázquez de Mella 525, Polanco, CDMX.
Follow us on social media so you never miss what's happening in Mexico City.
