After his first few days in Buenos Aires, when the novelty of a strange city had worn off, a friend and brother Elk, Mr. Oliver H. Lane, remarked to me:
"Buenos Aires looks to me just like a big Italian city. Her Avenida de Mayo, however, is a poor imitation of the Parisian boulevards."
In the first respect, I agree with him. The architecture of the buildings, the attire of the male inhabitants, the way the moustaches are trimmed, the cafés, the toscanos, the wax matches, the lottery tickets, the dirty paper money, the confectionery stores, the ice creams, and the beggars all savor of the Lavinian shores. In the second respect I cannot agree with him. The Avenida de Mayo is physically somewhat similar to the Parisian boulevards, but in character it is widely different. If it is supposed to ape them, it is then a poor imitation, but so different is it in most respects, that as a first impression I would only call it a physical imitation. The oftener and the longer one sits in front of the cafés and watches the people pass by, the further apart he draws the comparison of this street to any street in the world. I would designate the Avenida de Mayo as original. The buildings that flank it are much taller than those of Paris; the street is also considerably narrower than those in the French capital; the crowd that parade the sidewalks is also not the same.
Buenos Aires Types
Rivadavia is the street which runs at right angles to the La Plata River, and continuing westward into the country, divides the city into two parts, its intersectors having different nomenclatures south of it than they have north. For instance, a cross street has the name Santiago del Estero south of it, and Talcahuano north of it: another is named Piedras south of it, and Esmeralda north of it, etc. In the old section of Buenos Aires, where the buildings are almost entirely given up to wholesale and retail trade, the streets are exceedingly narrow. A decade and a half ago, in order to give the people a breathing space, and to relieve the congestion of traffic in this part of the city, houses one half a block south of Rivadavia were torn down, and the Avenida 25 de Mayo was put through. It starts at the Plaza de Mayo on which is the Capitol, and ends at the Plaza Congreso, on which is the new white marble Congress Building, the finest and most expensive building in all South America. The length of this boulevard is about one mile.
Architecturally the exterior and façades of the Buenos Aires buildings are as fine as any in the world; the style of architecture predominating is original, but the contagion has spread, and the new structures of Montevideo, Rosario, and Mar del Plata have copied the ornate and domed style that is preëminently Bonaerense. In order to compare the architecture of Buenos Aires to that of another city, let us choose Paris or Vienna because the Argentine capital is a city that is fundamentally European. Although more beautiful in buildings than either Paris or Vienna, it can hold no comparison to them in the massiveness and solidity of the edifices in either of them. Nearly all the buildings in Argentina are built of the poorest imaginable brick, loosely fitted together, but little mortar having been used. To these is given a coating of plaster, which on the façades is worked into ornaments. On account of the climatic effects on the cheap material, these buildings in a few years' time take on a weather-beaten appearance. On account of the poor foundations on a muddy soil, many structures sink after a few years.
