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The long street of Recoleta - Av. Quintana
Street that joined the Convent of the Recoletos to the city. Avenue without interruptions from Cinco Esquinas all the way to Callao. Considered the typical street of the barrio, it has an uneven width and was lined with gutters that transported rainwater. The cobbles on this street were never flattened, and still sustained the daily traffic of pedestrians, horses and carriages.
Calle de Chavango - Av. Las Heras
Second biggest street, its origin comes from the ‘Hueco de la Cabecitas’, the deposit for the slaughterhouse waste, now Plaza Vicente López. The road has deteriorated through the passage of goods and people, so you need to hop and skip to get across it. The pestilence that came from the discarded offal was virulent. The origin of the name is unknown, but an entertaining anecdote tells that when Torcuato de Alvear changed its name to Av. Las Heras, he received a memo signed by Chavango’s widow and children registering their outrage at the name-change. A subsequent investigation into a supposed unknown hero eventually uncovered a practical joke on Intendente Alvear by Dr. Lucio López.
Calle Bella Vista - Av. Alvear -
One of the first streets to be opened, though it was much later when it surpassed the others in opulence and style. Parallel to the Calle Larga from Juncal to Callao, it was described in a 1772 map by Cristóbal Barrientos as a "narrow street that should be closed for being useless and unsuccessful.” In 1882 it was extended to unite with the lower part of Recoleta, connecting the Calle Larga with the road to Palermo. It thus changed its name to Av. Alvear along the section which led to the old house of Rosas in the 3 de Febrero Park. Alvear Avenue is now a symbol of the area. From Alvear, Callao Avenue (formerly called Camino de las Tunas), se transforma en un tobogán.
Camino de las Tunas - Av. Callao
Widened by Bernadino Rivadavia, who considered it to be a beltway of the city. It crossed the populated part and continued to the north, interrupted frequently by country houses. At the end of the last century, with the disappearance of the low lying area and railway company constructions, a complex of diversions was built, named Parque Japonés.
Calle Garantías
Planned during the presidency of Rivadavia. Intendente Torcuato de Alvear changed its name to in honor of Nicolás Rodríguez Peña, precursor and statesman of independence. The square crossed by this street consequently received the same name.
Camino del Bajo
Known today as Av. Leandro N. Alem, the street Camino del Bajo at the foot of the hills, continuing until the Bajada de Recoleta, where it swung round towards Palermo, was the necessary road to take to the house of the ‘Restorer of the Law’ Juan Manuel de Rosas, along which famous characters of the era traveled in order to plead for the life or liberty of the prisoners detained in the house.
Bajo de la Recoleta
The piece of land that extended between the Camino del Bajo and the river. This was the place where clothes were washed, and the area’s gossip center. It was brought to an end when the land was taken over by the railway and accompanying urbanization, and formed the location for the first plant to provide running water to the capital’s citizens, substituting wells and domestic cisterns.
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