Elizabeth Pond Street, Cebu City

Elizabeth Pond Street, the street running from Juana Osmeña Street, parallel to the Redemptorist Monastery was renamed to Ramon Aboitiz Street decades ago.

The street renaming happened on August 5, 1974 when the Cebu City Council enacted City Ordinance No. 893, the ordinance was sponsored by Councilor Arturo L. Abellana during the term of Mayor Eulogio E. Borres.

Elizabeth was the wife of Dr. Erasmus Arlington "Arlie" Pond. Dr. Pond was a graduate of the Vermont Medical School in 1895. He was born on January 9, 1873 in Massachusetts, United States of America.

Elizabeth's husband was an Army doctor, who was appointed as Assistant Surgeon of the U.S. Army on June 5, 1898 and became part of those who came to the Philippines after the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, when Spain sold the Philippines to the Americans.

After World War I, Dr. Pond was discharged from the U.S. Army on January 15,1919. Dr. Pond was given the task of addressing the health and sanitary problem of Cebu. He was the first medical chief of the Southern Islands Hospital, now called the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.  His assistant was Dr. Augusto P. Villalon, originally from Luzon but married a Cebuana, Genoveva Chiong Veloso Singson.

Elizabeth supported her husband in his duties. She took charge of a mother and children hospital in Cebu. It is said that the couple was childless, thus they devoted their time in the service of the Cebuanos.

The Southern Islands Hospital was the first National General Hospital built in 1911, then called as Hospital del Sur, meaning hospital of the south but officially operated under the name in 1913.

In a report dated March 27, 1914 in a study conducted by Loots Schwabtz, Assistant Surgeon of the United States Public Health Service, found out that blindness was becoming a health problem in Cebu. There were 600 who suffered from such disability, the cause was smallpox. Dr. Pond and Dr. Villalon assisted in the conduct of the study and initiated remedies and prevention of the problem.

Dr. Pond, after his stint with the government, opened "Pond and Deen Navigation Company". While Elizabeth was out of the country, her husband underwent appendicitis operation on September 10, 1930, days later (September 19) he died at the very hospital he built. In due recognition of the services rendered by Dr. Pond to the people of Cebu, flags were in half mast.