Madero Street

Francisco I. Madero Avenue

Calle Madero (Madero street)
Calle Madero; The Torre Latinoamericana in the background
Former name(s)	Calle de La Profesa, Calle de San Francisco, Paseo de Plateros
Namesake	Francisco I. Madero
Type	Pedestrian
Length	700 m (2,300 ft)
Location	Historic center of Mexico City  MEX
Postal code	06000
Nearest metro station	Bellas Artes, Zócalo
Coordinates	Coordinates: 19°26′01″N 99°08′14″W / 19.433617°N 99.137296°W / 19.433617; -99.137296
East end	Zócalo (Constitution Square)
West end	Eje Central
Construction
Inauguration	1862 (1862)

Francisco I. Madero Avenue, commonly known as simply Madero street is a geographically and historically significant pedestrian street of Mexico City and a major thoroughfare of the historic city center. It has an East-West orientation from Zócalo to the Eje Central. From that point the street is called Avenida Juárez and becomes accessible to one-way traffic from one of the city's main boulevards, the Paseo de la Reforma.

It was named in honour of one of the most important figures in the Mexican Revolution - Francisco I. Madero, a leader of the Anti-Re-election Movement and who was briefly President of Mexico before his assassination in 1914.

This street has always been one of the most popular and busiest roads since colonial times and was designed by Spaniard Alonso Garcia Bravo. It was one of the first streets to be drawn of the new Spanish city on the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

In the nineteenth century, Madero was already one of the most popular and crowded streets of the capital. In many buildings concurred popular sites like the Casa de los Azulejos, home of the famous Jockey Club or imported products stores, some of which exist until today as the "Pastelería El Globo" (El Globo Pastry) and "Sombreros Tardán" (Tardán Hats). Another famous store was "Droguería Plateros" (Plateros Drugstore) at 9 Second Street of Plateros. In its upper part, Ferdinand Bon Benard and Gabriel Veyre, dealers of Lumiere Brothers, gave on August 14, 1896 the first cinema show in Mexico.

There are chronicles about the popularity of the Madero street as a social point of meeting written by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Guillermo Prieto, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Luis G. Urbina, among others.