Mariana, Quezon City
Mariana, is an administrative division in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is an urban barangay in Quezon City in a middle class residential and commercial area known as New Manila, which includes Barangay Mariana and the adjacent Barangay Damayang Lagi. Originally a hinterland along the San Juan River at the outskirts of Manila, the area was purchased from friar lands and other estates by Doña Hemady and Kemal H. Hemady in the 1920s, developing it into the first gated community outside of Manila. Following World War II, the area experienced significant changes with the development of schools, churches, and the commercialization of adjacent areas. New Manila eventually ceased to become a gated community, with only some roads remaining gated at certain hours of the day, spurring the decline of low-density suburbia in favor of mixed-use and higher-density developments. History Prior to the 1920s, the area that would become known as New Manila was once a hilly, underdeveloped hinterland along the shoreline of the San Juan River, at the outskirts of Manila. Eventually, as Manila became crowded, noisy, and polluted, new developments in the nearby San Juan became popular among middle-class families for a much more quiet and peaceful place