Manuel V. Domenech Ferrer (1869–1942) was born in Isabela, the son of Josep Domenech Boronat and María Catalina Ferrer de la Rosa y Velázco. He studied at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania from where he graduated in 1888 and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York where he received his engineering degree.

After his return to Puerto Rico, in 1897 he designed the residence of Pedro Juan Rosaly and in 1899 the house known as La Casa de las Cariatidas for Carlos Armstrong Toro across the steet from the Ponce Cathedral. He was elected a member of the first House of Representatives after the War of 1898 and reelected in 1902 and 1904. He acted as Municipal Architect for the city of Ponce where he was Mayor ifrom January, 1904 to January, 1905. In 1914 was responsible for the rehabilitation of the Casa Paoli, the residence of famous operatic tenor Antonio Paoli. In 1914 he was appointed to serve as Commissioner in the United States Department of the Interior, becoming one of the first Puerto Rican to hold an officer's position in the presidential cabinet. From 1930 to 1935 he was Treasurer of Puerto Rico and in various occasions he also served as Acting Governor of Puerto Rico.