Avenida Rizal was created by Manila city ordinance in 1911 from two parallel streets in the city –
Calle Dulumbayan (from
Tagalog dulo ng bayan, meaning "the edge of town", and the area of the same name) and
Calle Salcedo. It also occupied the old
Calle Cervantes,
Calzada de San Lazaro, and
Camino á Gagalaḡin in Santa Cruz. Once planned to terminate at the
Manila Chinese Cemetery at the north, the road was lengthened in the next two decades up to the adjacent then-municipality of
Caloocan, then part of
Rizal province, where the then-new
monument honoring
Andres Bonifacio, now known as Monumento, is located. The extension was originally referred to as
Manuguit Extension, and Rizal Avenue Extension's name had also reached further north up to
Polo,
Bulacan (now Valenzuela, Metro Manila). The avenue was designated Route 3A and a part of
Manila North Road (Highway 3 or Route 3) that connects Manila to northern
Luzon. It became Manila's longest street during that time. Before and right after
World War II, the avenue was center of the city's social life, with the street lined with shops, restaurants and movie theaters. The theaters were designed by the prominent architects of the day, many of whom would become
National Artists. Its section between Calle Carriedo and
Calle Blumentritt was also one of the routes of
tranvia until 1945. Two National Artists for Architecture,
Pablo Antonio and
Juan Nakpil, created several
movie theaters along the avenue. Antonio designed the Galaxy, the Ideal, the Scala and the Lyric theaters, while Nakpil designed the Capitol, the Ever and the Avenue theaters. As the years went by, the area was victimized by urban renewal. By the 1960s, economic activities shifted from the downtown area of Manila to
Makati. The departure of business and the rich residents from Manila to the suburbs and the increase in low-skilled rural migrants looking for jobs led to the deterioration of the old business districts, including Rizal Avenue. The construction of the LRTA Line 1 system in the 1980s, which required the closure of Rizal Avenue to vehicular traffic, essentially killed business along the route. The cinemas themselves resorted to showing double-feature B-movies and soft porn as people transferred to the newer and more modern
Ortigas Center and the
Ayala Center. On September 15, 2016, Manila Mayor
Joseph Estrada declared a parking ban on the avenue's stretch in the city. During the term of his successor,
Isko Moreno, the stretch was also lighted up with new street lights from 2021 to 2022 as part of the city's street lighting program.
Former pedestrian zone In 2000, during the term of
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, the stretch from Recto Avenue to Carriedo Street was transformed into a pedestrian-only area by paving the road with bricks as part of an urban renewal project. It rerouted vehicular traffic to secondary roads like Tomas Mapúa and Doroteo Jose Streets. The project included painting the buildings and the LRT Line 1 system. The Ideal Theater was previously demolished, and the Galaxy, Scala, and Lyric theaters were already misused. The lower level of the Ever Theater was converted into stalls, while the upper levels were abandoned. Only the refurbished
Capitol Theater remained until its demolition in 2020. The Avenue Theater, which survived the
Battle of Manila in 1945, was demolished in 2006 to give way to a parking area. The costs of maintaining the facility were too high compared to converting it into a parking area. The
National Historical Institute (NHI) and several private entities tried to prevent the building from being torn down. One of Manila Mayor
Alfredo Lim's first decisions after winning the
elections of 2007 was to reopen the pedestrian-only section of Rizal Avenue, which has elicited complaints from shopkeepers due to decreased traffic of people, and from commuters, which caused traffic jams on secondary streets. Since the cost of the tiles for the pedestrianization was about each, the tiles were carefully removed for them to be used in future projects. On July 17, 2007, Lim attended the ceremony reopening the closed portion of Rizal Avenue, and it has remained open to this day. ==Intersections==