More São Paulo nostalgia: Avenida Paulista

Avenida Paulista is São Paulo's equivalent to New York's Fifth Avenue...

Like Fifth Avenue, Avenida Paulista started as a fancy millionaire's mansions strip in the old days. The two avenues also had their beautiful mansions demolished and huge commercial buildings built in their place...

Here is the old Avenida Paulista:

I've always admired antiques and old architecture, and I mean ALWAYS! Since a very tender age... I've used to pass through "Paulista" (as everyone calls it there) and admire some of the houses that were left there. And also almost cried when some of them were demolished... Brazil has a lot to learn in terms of conservation and preservation of historic sites... Maybe one day...

Anyway... This is how the famous avenue looks like now:

You can see the evolution of Avenida Paulista here. Amazing pictures.

The internet is fabulous... Just when you think you cannot find stuff from your past, you cannot believe your eyes with what some people post... In this case I merely searched "old Sao Paulo photos, and came across some gems that I was able to see during my lifetime...

When I've stumbled over this site, I've had an a-ha moment! Completely forgot about this house! See pictures below:

I used to admire this mansion when I was a kid. And the years passed, I went to live abroad, and now...
Memories!!!
This mansion used to stand on the corner of Avenida Paulista and Consolacão. This beauty survived all the demolitions that happened in the 1970's and 1980's only to be stupidly destroyed during subway constructions in the late Eighties... Shame... They don't make things like this anymore, do they?

This is how it looked in the early Seventies, they were starting to dig the subway:

Another look:

I do remember this corner "newer" mansion on the left and the white one next to it... All gone... The smaller white house was the home of one of the only furriers (in Brazil, please!) of the town: Madame Rosita...

But now for the good news! All hope is not lost... We still have those gems:

The Franco de Mello mansion. I've always loved this house. And it looks in a decent state of conservation... at least from the outside... More info about this beauty here.

A newer shot (note the new building behind it):

And we do have this one: A Casa das Rosas! This house has an interesting story at least for me: I've worked in the modern building behind it for many years - it was my first job and I used to go to the free exhibits there all the time and admire the beauty of this house...

This is how it looked in the past...

And now...

I've used to work in the blue mirrored building on the right... Good memories...

This was where I worked...

And I especially LOVE this shot: the old and the new side by side...

I just wish that the old and the new could live together like this... Imagine if all the beautiful mansions survived and had gorgeous new buildings in their backyards...

Just a  dream...