Rua Direita & Praça do Patriarca

Rua Direita is an narrow street that links Praça do Patriarca with Praça da Sé. Due to its narrow width it has been closed to cars and vehicles of any sort for the longest time. As it is a direct link to Praça da Sé, it was always busy with literally millions of people walking its length through the years. 

 

Rua Direita in 1955, looking west (Praça do Patriarca) with Lojas Americanas known internationally as Woolworths featured on the left side... 

Trying hard to order a sandwich at the counter of Brazilian Woolworths aka Lojas Americanas for 35 cruzeiros. 

Rua Direita in 1959. 

Rua Direita in 1961. 

Rua Direita in 1968.

Rua Quintino Bocaiúva looking at Rua Direita in the background circa 1960.

Rua Direita 5 years later, in 1960, looking toward Praça da Sé... before one reached Lojas Americanas one had Lojas Brasileiras which aped its American counterpart poorly. 

Rua Direita, in 1934. 

Ladies crossing rua Líbero Badaró, with Praça do Patriarca at their back in November 1950.

3 young ladies stroll at Praça do Patriarca in the 50s; see Casa Cruzeiro on the corner which would soon turn into Casa Fretin; see a Radio Record advertising banner stretched across Rua São Bento. 

Mother & daughter crossing Viaducto do Chá in the late 1930s, with Praça do Patriarca in the background. 

Praça do Patriarca with Galeria Prestes Maia in the centre where a nativity scene (presépio) is shown during the 1957 Christmas season. 

Praça do Patriarca in 1966. 

Praça do Patriarca in 1926. Santo Antonio's is the only building left today. 

Another shot of Praça do Patriarca in the 1920s in which one sees Rua da Quitanda and Mappin Stores. 

Rua Direita with Rua José Bonifácio in the 1920s. 

Rua Líbero Badaró circa 1933. See San Francisco church on the righ-hand-side. 

Praça do Patriarca with rua Líbero Badaró on 18 December 1958. with newly-built Conde Prates Building on the background... 

Rua Líbero Badaró next to Praça do Patriarca as late as 1969. That big house would be soon demolished. 

BELA VISTA through the years...

 

Rua Condessa de São Joaquim looking from Av. da Liberdade towards Av. Brigadeiro Luiz Antonio in 1970. 

Cine Niterói in its second life on Avenida Liberdade corner with rua Barão de Iguape, in 1970.

Rua Genebra in 1942. 

Unidentified street corner in Bela Vista in the early 1950s.

Street market at Rua Maria José, Bela Vista, in the 1950s.

Riachuelo substation with rua Santo Amaro stretching up to Bela Vista, in the 1930s.

Rua Santo Antonio, in 1952. It was originally called Saint Anthony Street because it started right next to Saint Anthony's church at Praça do Patriarca. Later, when Largo do Piques was turned into Praça da Bandeira, Rua Santo Antonio ended up losing this stretch. 

Rua Direita, which ends at Praça do Patriarca, was originally called Rua Direita de Santo Antonio; with times though the name was shortened to Rua Direita. 

Rua Santo Antonio in 1952.

Rua Santo Antonio in 1958.

Bela Vista seen from Morro dos Ingleses (English Heights). Rua Dr. Luiz Barreto on the foreground to the left; the first intersection is Rua Conselheiro Carrão: Our Lady Chiropita's dome on Rua 13 de Maio, which runs parallel to rua Dr. Luiz Barreto (can be seen on the right); the 2 larger buildings on the right background is Colégio Des Oiseaux; if you really look harder you'll see the towers of Sacred Heart's School and Sorocabana train station in the background. 

Rua 13 de Maio, in 1969. 

Teatro Oficina on Rua Jaceguay, in 1965. 

Rua 13 de Maio corner with Rua Conselheiro Carrão, with N.S. da Chiropita's tower, 1970s.

Rua Manoel Dutra with Rua 13 de Maio, 1968.

Morro Grande / LAPA

I was born in April 1959 in São Paulo, and grew up in the region of Morro Grande, Freguesia do Ó, in what is actually a sub-region thereof called Vila Miriam; don't mix it up with Jardim Miriam which is a great suburb in the South zone of the city. Ah, don't forget Vila Miriam's name has been exchanged for Vila Marisa. Crazy things done by beaurocrats at City Hall. 

I remember when I was a child, from 1963 to 1968, Mother & Father would take us, myself, my twin brother Jairo and younger brother Carlos to a church-on-the-top-of-the-hill to attend the Sunday evening Mass at 6:00 pm. I don't think I ever knew the real name of the church which was actually a chapel, Capela Santa Clara de Assis. 

We walked all the way from home going up a steep hill until we got to the top where we entered a street called Raimundo da Cunha Matos with a textile factory on left-hand side. The whole top of the mountain was covered by a beautiful coffee plantation (cafezal). Keep on walking up past the textile factory there was a medium-sized cinema which showed movies on Saturdays and Sundays and the Chapel across the street. 

Behind the altar of Santa Clara's there was a tremendous glass window from which one could see the green of the coffee plantation that extended up to the Jaraguá's Peak, the highest point in São Paulo's metropolitan area. The sun set behind the peak and after dark, a chapel attendant from behind a side mezzanine would go and draw (mechanically) the great white curtain as if it were the end of a movie session. Actually, I remember there were two mezzanines; one on each side of the altar. The one on the left-side sat the choir. Then the priest would start Mass. I never failed to be elated by this routine. 

There was also a primary school sponsored by the Quarry either in the cinema building or at the church. I'm not sure about it.  

Santa Clara was built in the early 1960s, following the dictates of the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer who had built a new capital city for the country: Brasília (inaugurated on 21st April 1960). The money for the church and cinema came from Thomaz de Mello Cruz, the owner of the Quarry - Pedreira Morro Grande - that existed on top of the hill. Mr Cruz's son-in-law built a textile factory (tecelagem) called Fabrica de Tecidos Santo Eduardo a little lower on the street hill.

Quarry staff had their houses uphill from the chapel. They all had large backyards and they seemed good houses. It was a perfect arrangement for a little town with work (quarry), basic education and entertainment (cinema) combined. Apparently Chapel activities went on up to 1979, for there are photos of children taking their First Communion then. It is a mystery why Chapel life was discontinued. Maybe it was connected with the declining work at the quarry. When workers started leaving, Chapel attendance fell.

Even though I never went to see any movies at the Cinema, I remember the place vividly well, for I had my Elementary School Graduation at the very Cinema in 1973. I still remember all the teachers sitting at a long table set up just bellow the big white screen facing the audience, while someone called each and every name of those graduates to receive their diploma. Parents and guests applauded while we climbed up the few steps to the platform next to the screen to be handed a tube and have our hands shaken.  

After I grew up, I stopped going to Mass so I hardly ever went up the hill and its pleasant atmosphere. The fact is, the Quarry stopped its activities circa 1980. Even though some of the workers kept on living in those houses, the Chapel, the cinema and finally the textile factory were gradually abandoned and fell to ruin. The coffee plantation was left to rot. Rubbish was strewn around the place, rats came after scraps of food in the dumped rubbish and the place turned into decay and degradation. 

Today, you can still enter the Chapel whose reinforced concrete stands the ravages of time. The cinema's doors were entombed. Cracks appeared here and there. I wonder how much longer the whole structure will stand. Crack-cocaine is used willy-nilly by vagabonds, homeless people and petty criminals who haunt the premises. 

From inside the shell of what was a charming Chapel you can still see Pico do Jaraguá but the coffee trees are dead and gone and all you see is a huddled mass of unfinished houses and ugly buildings. 

Santa Clara de Assis Chapel on the left; a cinema on the opposite side amongst a coffee plantation.

Cinema abandonado no Morro Grande, Grande Zona Norte; Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, 350, Morro Grande; fica na rua do ponto final do ônibus 917-m.

Morro Grande cinema's balcony.

Remains of a cinema built at Morro Grande (Freguesia do Ó) on Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, in the 1950s. 

Rain water fills the gaps at the pedreira in Morro Grande...

Birdseye's view of Morro Grande & vicinity...

Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos leads to the wilderness where the Church & Cinema are.

the whole green 'enclosure' seen by satellite... surrounded by a sea of habitations...

No Morro Grande, distrito da Freguesia do Ó, na zona norte, a rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, há os destroços de um cinema construído na década de 1950. 

Silvana Mariano, 47, que mora na região, não chegou a assistir a nenhuma sessão e ainda era pequena quando o cinema foi desativado no bairro. “Estudei no Colégio Santa Clara, há 35 anos, onde meus filhos também estudaram. Cheguei a comprar tecidos na tecelagem com minha mãe, mas nessa época o cinema já não funcionava mais”, relembra.

O local pertencia a Thomáz de Mello Cruz, dono da citada tecelagem. Ambas instalações ficavam próximas a uma pedreira (desativada desde os anos 1980s). A religiosidade do proprietário deu vida à Igreja de Santa Clara, (de fronte ao cinema) que servia como uma escola.

Se no passado, quatro andares reuniam espectadores com olhares atentos frente às telonas, agora tudo se resume em janelas quebradas, pedregulhos e paredes descascadas e pichadas. Senão como reduto de jovens, que brincam de esconde-esconde no local do qual desconhecem a história.

É o caso de William Moraes, 15, estudante, que frequentou poucas vezes uma sala de cinema, por causa do distância (a mais próxima fica apenas no distrito de Santana, também na zona norte) e do alto preço dos ingressos. “Se tivesse um cinema perto, eu poderia ir mais vezes com meus amigos, não só para assistir ‘Velozes e Furiosos 7”, afirma.

ESPECULAÇÃO

Em 2009, o antigo cinema foi ocupado por um coletivo cultural que sonhava em transformá-lo em um centro de cultura. A ocupação, no entanto, foi impedida e os artistas tiveram que se retirar, conta Dimas Reis Gonçalves, 30, que participou do ato. “Fomos convidados, ‘gentilmente’, a ir até o DP (Departamento de Polícia)”, afirma o ativista.

“Cheguei a falar com o pessoal do SPCine, que gostou muito da ideia, mas teríamos que fazer uma grande mobilização para ter financiador e comoção pública”, diz Gonçalves. O Circuito SPCine é uma rede de salas de cinema aberta e gratuita, instalada em alguns CEUs (Centro Educacional Unificado) e na Galeria Olido, pela Prefeitura de São Paulo.

Segundo ativistas e moradores,  o interesse em transformar o lugar em um espaço cultural ainda é mera especulação devido ao desinteresse por parte do poder público, que não esboçou interesse no projeto.

De acordo com a assessoria da Prefeitura Regional de Freguesia-Brasilândia, até o momento, não há nenhuma proposta prevista. “Existe um movimento na região que é composto por ativistas culturais e artistas, que reivindicam a construção de um espaço cultural no local com o apoio da Supervisão de Cultura desta prefeitura, porém trata-se de uma área particular e não há nenhum projeto de compra da área por parte da Prefeitura de São Paulo”, afirma.

O Mural contatou a família Mello Cruz, dona do imóvel, para saber os planos em relação à propriedade, mas não obteve resposta. 4 August 2017. ronaldolages.mural@gmail.com

Train arrives at Lapa Station in 1960. 

Estrada da Freguesia do Ó em 1928 - atual trecho inicial da Avenida Itaberaba. Vista do Cemitério da Freguesia do Ó, tomada das proximidades da Rua Javoraú (à esquerda) em direção a Rua Chico de Paula.

Railway Underpass at Lapa, on Rua Gago Coutinho, 392, in 1922.