This chapter examines the two neighborhoods prior to their accelerated urbanization, when they still existed as rural localities. Madureira, located at the gateway to Rio de Janeiro’s sertão, had a station on the Central do Brasil railway line since 1884. Casa Verde, situated north of the Tietê River, remained a semi-marshland fringe area until its subdivision and development in 1913.

The comparison highlights, in both cases, the enduring influence of landholding and social structures inherited from the era of slavery, which provided the framework for subsequent urbanization. In Madureira, long-established landowning families, such as the Machado family, strengthened their political role as the area became increasingly integrated into the urban zone. In Casa Verde, urbanization resulted directly from the initiative of a member of the São Paulo oligarchy, João Rudge, who implemented an economic and moral project of the “civilizing conquest” of a no man’s land, based on substantial land valorization made possible through his political networks.

In both suburban districts, these landholding and political elites saw their roles evolve as settlement intensified, within a broader context of major political transformations.