In order start the tour through Balcarce Street it would be convenient to start first on 350 San Juan Avenue, where Buenos Aires’ Museum of Modern Art is located since 1982 and that was originally Nobleza Picardo’s factory (an Argentine tobacco company).

The Southern part of Balcarce Street was unpaved until the 1930’s; and it was therefore used as a short horseracing track, as well as for ring horseracing.

Many of the original houses on the western side of Balcarce Street have a staircase lifting the entrance 2 meters above the street level. The reason behind the construction of these staircases was that at the moment when these houses were built the River Plate (“de la Plata” River) was being filled with debris, and from Balcarce Street to the East the land precipitated into the river.

The former Childhood Patronage, founded in 1892 with the objective of protecting abandoned children was located in the corner of San Juan Avenue and Balcarce Street.

Gallery of the "Viejo Hotel"

The Gallery of the "Viejo Hotel" (Old Hotel), a building constructed around 1890 in an Italian style, was originally a tenement house and was later transformed into a hotel-tenement house, like many others in its time. The Gallery of the Old Hotel is an example of how people lived in the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth.

Juan Carlos Castagnino's house

 

 

 

The house where the Argentine plastic artist Juan Carlos Castagnino lived is located in front of this building. It is a typical construction of the Hispanic period, which maintains the accentuated pink colour used in its time and the small windows on the front.

“Filled in corner" (see the right side of the picture)

In the corner of Carlos Calvo and Balcarce Street, a curious detail: this is what was called the “filled in corner”. It’s objective was to stop people armed with knifes to hide in the angle awaiting passers-by.

 

Danish Church on Carlos Calvo Street

 

 

 

 

In the opposite side of the corner and walking through Carlos Calvo Street, an example of Danish architecture, with a brick front. It is the Danish Church which was constructed on that site in 1931.

Getting back on Balcarce Street, the old walls of what used to be “La Paloma” Store, and later La Paloma “Pulperia”; intimately linked to the life of the “Mazorca” (Juan Manuel de Rosas’ police force) and particularly to its chief and neighbour, Ciriaco Cuitiño; could be found until recently.

Non-existent walls of what used to be “La Paloma” Store, and later La Paloma “Pulperia”.

 

Moving ahead on Balcarce Street you will discover a house that was constructed in 1790. It’s façade has been reconstructed maintaining some of its original details.

Giuffra’s Passage, a 2 blocks long street, remembers, with its name, one of the neighbourhood’s politicians and continues until Paseo Colon Avenue, where the Monument “An Ode to Work” can be found. This sculpture was created by Rogelio de Yrurtia, and is constituted by 14 nudes symbolising the human effort and the evolution on the road to progress.

Close to it, crossing through San Lorenzo’s Passage, you will reach the corner of Chile and Balcarce streets where you can observe the building of Antorchas Foundation sided by Ericsson’s former factory in the corner of Chile Street and Paseo Colon Avenue; and the former Mint House with an exit on Balcarce Street almost in the corner with Chile Street.