Corrientes three, four, eight,
Avenida Corrientes (Corrientes Avenue) is one of the principal thoroughfares of Buenos Aires. In the 1600s it was known as Calle del Sol which was changed to Calle San Nicolás in 1738. In 1808 if was changed again, this time to Calle de Inchéurregui, and retained this name until it received its final name Corrientes. In 1938, the street was widened and turned into an avenue.
In its current form, Corrientes Avenue begins at its intersection with Eduardo Madero Avenue in the east end, and ends at the La Chacarita Cemetery on Federico Lacroze Avenue in the northwest. Its most famous intersection is with the 9 de Julio Avenue at the Obelisk.
Approximate location of Corrientes, 348
The Golden Map©,Dogma BS AS, kindly provided by Oscar Giovannini, Córdoba, Argentina
This avenue used to be the centre of Porteño nightlife and retains the initial 'bohemia' immortalized in popular lore. In the 1930s, after it was widened, numerous cinemas, theatres, and restaurants quickly lined its sidewalks. Antique, rare and used bookstores are clustered here as well, interspersed with the traditional Porteno cafes. Exchange houses are located along this avenue for the many tourists who flock here. The Obelisco (Obelisk) and this famous avenue, constitute the city's icons, and the typical picture postcard view of Buenos Aires.
Corrientes Avenue, prior to the widening, is affectionately referred to as Corrientes Angosta. It was a very short street in what was known at the Lower East Side partly due to a very steep incline of some 150 meters effecting all east-west streets starting from Leandro N. Alem Avenue and going east.
In Buenos Aires, contrary to all other cities in Argentina, street address numbering is east to west and on a metric measure. So Corrientes 348 must have been a residence with the front door located 348 meters from the east end (beginning, actually) of the street, which would place it somewhere between 25 de Mayo and Reconquista streets. In the early days, this stretch of street was not a family oriented neighbourhood, but a red-light district generally associated with lower-class bars, sailors and prostitutes. This was the original "locale" for the tango but soon enough the higher social classes were "infected" by the music and the atmosphere and sought dance establishments with of more-refined social standing but with tango atmosphere nonetheless.
This fact is rather important and should be kept in mind when later on we discuss the interior of this apartment or small house.