This street has always been one of the most popular and busiest roads since
colonial times and was designed by Spaniard
Alonso Garcia Bravo. It was one of the first streets to be drawn of the new Spanish city on the ruins of the
Aztec capital
Tenochtitlan. In the nineteenth century, Madero was already one of the most popular and crowded streets of the capital. In many buildings concurred popular sites like the
Casa de los Azulejos, home of the famous Jockey Club or imported products stores, some of which exist until today as the "Pastelería El Globo" (El Globo Pastry) and "Sombreros Tardán" (Tardán Hats). Another famous store was "Droguería Plateros" (Plateros Drugstore) at 9 Second Street of Plateros. In its upper part, Ferdinand Bon Benard and Gabriel Veyre, dealers of Lumiere Brothers, gave on August 14, 1896 the first cinema show in Mexico. There are chronicles about the popularity of the Madero street as a social point of meeting written by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Guillermo Prieto, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Luis G. Urbina, among others.
Names placing the sign that renamed the street on December 8, 1914. Three sections of the street have each had previous names. The Western half of the street, between the current Eje Central Lázar Cárdenas (named
San Juan de Letrán street at the time) and
Bolívar street, was called "First and Second Street of San Francisco" after the large
church and monastery complex at that location. Further East, between Bolívar street and
Isabel la Católica street, was known as "Profesa street" after the
Temple of San Felipe Neri (commonly known as "La Profesa") which is located there. Finally, the section between Isabel la Católica street and Zócalo (Constitution Square) was known as "Calle de Plateros" (
Silversmith's road) after the silver jewellery workshops and stores established in that block after an ordinance given by the viceroy
Lope Díez de Armendáriz, in the seventeenth century. The present name was bestowed by
Francisco "Pancho" Villa on the morning of December 8, 1914, after the arrival of his
troops and
Zapata's
Liberation Army of the South to Mexico City. Villa and a small group of troops placed a plaque with the new street name on the corner of Madero and Isabel la Católica streets. They announced that whoever removed the plate would be shot.
Pedestrianisation In 2009 Alejandra Moreno, the coordinator of the Historical Center Authority, announced that the city government would pedestrianise the street. In 2012 the modifications were awarded by the
VIII Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU) for best architectural and urban development. ==Notable buildings==