to whom he had transferred ownership of the property after deciding to follow a career in politics a few years earlier, began to build on the land. In 1938, hearing that they were having difficulty keeping up with the cost of maintaining the Jardim da Aclimação and planning to build on it, the Mayor of São Paulo, Prestes Maia, offered to purchase the property from them. On 16 January 1939, Botelho's heirs, Antônio Carlos de Arruda Botelho, Constança Botelho de Macedo Costa, and Carlos José Botelho Júnior, formalized the sale of an area of 182 thousand square meters to the Prefecture of São Paulo, for the sum of 2,850 million reais. Paradoxically, rather than signaling the rebirth of the Jardim da Aclimação, the purchase spelled out the definitive end for most of its attractions and the beginning of a long period of alternating neglect and revival for the green open space. Initial construction and high-rise redevelopment Even while the Jardim da Aclimação was still a flourishing attraction, a residential neighborhood was starting to take shape around it. In 1900 the only roads and avenues in the area were the ones marking its boundaries, including the Rua Vergueiro, the Rua Lins de Vasconcelos and the Rua Tamandaré. By 1905, the Rua Pires da Mota, Rua Cururipe, Rua Espírito Santo, Rua José Getúlio, Rua Baturité, and the first section of the present-day Avenida da Aclimação had been laid out. In 1914, the Rua Machado de Assis and part of the Rua Paula Ney and the Rua José do Patrocínio had appeared on the map. Nevertheless, between these roads built on the steepest part of the property, known as the Morro da Aclimação, originally belonging to the family of Francisco Justino da Silva, and the Rua Lins de Vasconcelos, the Avenida da Aclimação, and the Jardim da Aclimação, all that existed was an almost rural landscape dominated by scrubland, streams, fields, and farm buildings. In 1916, again reflecting the irregular contours of the area, a series of roads were built in a semicircular arc off the Avenida da Aclimação and converging on the Largo Rodrigues Alves, the present Praça General Polidoro. These were all named after precious stones—Turmalina, Topázio, Diamante, Ágata, Safira, Esmeralda, Rubi, etc. Higher up, in the direction of the Rua Nilo, the street names took their inspiration from the planets of the solar system: Júpiter, Urano, Saturno. It was not