Session Road

Session Road looking south near the Baguio Cathedral

Shops along Session Road

Session Road is the main thoroughfare of Baguio in the Philippines and is the main hub of what is called the Baguio Central Business District. Located at the city center, it is actually divided into two parts:

• Lower Session Road, extending eastward from Magsaysay Avenue (opposite the Plaza or Kilometer 0 and Malcolm Square) running through the BCBD until the intersections of Father Carlu Street (towards the Baguio Cathedral and Upper Bonifacio Street) and Governor Pack Road. This is the area where businesses are located, among others banks, shops, restaurants, bakeries, hotels, newsstands, boutiques, and studios.
• Upper Session Road, extending from Post Office Loop, Leonard Wood Road, and the foot of Luneta Hill (where SM City Baguio is located) to the rotunda cutting toward South Drive (towards Baguio Country Club), Loakan Road (towards Camp John Hay, Loakan Airport, Philippine Military Academy, Baguio City Economic Zone, and the mine areas of Itogon, Benguet), and Military Cut-Off (towards Kennon Road)

Session Road derives its name from the fact that it used to lead up to the old Baden-Powell Hall, where the Philippine Commission held its sessions from April 22 to June 11, 1904 and officially initiated the use of Baguio as the Philippine Summer Capital. The Commission was composed of Governor General Luke E. Wright, president, and Commissioners Henry Ide, Dean Conant Worcester, T. Padre Tavera, Benito Legarda, Jose de Luzuriaga, James Francis Smith and William Cameron Forbes. A marker by what is now Baden-Powell Inn, right beside the enormous bus terminals on Governor Pack Road, stand as the only visible evidence that anything of historical significance ever took place on Session Road.

Nowadays, the only session that regularly take place in the vicinity are the jam sessions at Ayuyang, a favorite watering hole of reggae, folk, and indigenous Filipino music fans and artists alike. A local Philippine band called sessiOnroad based their name on the famous thoroughfare.

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