Its history dates back to 1870 when brothers José Dolores and Encarnación Guzmán inherited this property. At that time, the hacienda already housed a machine house with a boiler and a steam engine, being a place where the old scraping system still persisted. Five years later, the family sold the hacienda to the Garcia Fajardo brothers, marking the beginning of a new era.

Its history dates back to 1870 when brothers José Dolores and Encarnación Guzmán inherited this property. At that time, the hacienda already housed a machine house with a boiler and a steam engine, being a place where the old scraping system still persisted. Five years later, the family sold the hacienda to the Garcia Fajardo brothers, marking the beginning of a new era.

In 1889, the initials of the Garcia Fajardo family were engraved alongside the date 1901 on the chimney of the newly built machine house, tangible evidence of the modernization of the scraping processes.

However, several political issues in 1937 brought radical changes, including the expropriation of land and machinery. The international demand for natural fibers declined, plunging the sisal-producing haciendas into a rapid decline. Santa Rosa, which once covered 3,465 hectares in its glory days, saw its territory reduced to only 276 hectares.

The hacienda’s architecture, originally designed for livestock, underwent a significant transformation between 1899 and 1909. During that period, the main house, chapel, machine house, warehouses, pay office, overseer’s house, and dispensary were erected. Although born as a livestock hacienda, Santa Rosa de Lima did not retain the features of that era.

From the end of the 18th century, the opening of commerce allowed the cultivation of crops for the export and each region specialized in producing what was richest to the local soil. Thus, huge areas were turned over to the exploitation of hard woods, salt, sugar cane, cotton or tobacco. From 1830 there were attempts at large scale sisal production, but the lack of fiber-shredding machinery limited the supply to hand-produced fiber.

It was only in the last quarter of the 19th century that sisal could be shredded mechanically, and cultivation spread. The old estates or rural farms were transformed to the almost exclusive production of fiber. Great halls were built for the shredding machinery, steam engines with their typical chimneys, and presses for making bales, trains for transporting the leaves, networks of Decauville rails that covered the whole hacienda, dryers, and warehouses. Plants were built for the overseas administrators, supervisors and workers, as well as service buildings such as schools, infirmaries, chapels, stores and others, which now form occasionally quite large villages around the haciendas. 

The government that came into power after the 1910 Revolution carried out agrarian reforms and the redistribution of land, at the same time as the market for “Green Gold” was declining. Many haciendas were abandoned and their ruins disappeared into the tropical jungle. Today, some have been restored for a different purpose from the original ones, thus preserving the beauty of what was until not so long ago, the Pride of Yucatan.

After ceasing sisal production, the hacienda fell into abandonment for about thirty years. Engineer Enrique Vales Monforte became its owner until 1996. In that year, the hacienda was restored as a hotel, preserving and reproducing its original features. For example, the chimney was meticulously restored, cleaning and replacing damaged parts with a mixture and colors identical to the originals.

Finally, Hacienda Santa Rosa, rescued and renewed, opened its doors as a hotel in that year. The restoration returned the property to its historical splendor, offering visitors a unique experience that combines architectural charm with modern comfort. Thus, the old hacienda, witness to changes in history and industry, found a new life as a refuge that celebrates its rich heritage.