Joaquim Franco de Melo Residence, Historical mansion in Paulista Avenue, São Paulo, Brazil

The Joaquim Franco de Melo Residence is a two-storey eclectic stone mansion with a pale beige facade. On the left, a rounded bay rises to an ornate arched pediment with relief carvings; below it is a tall arched window with white framing and a small balustraded balcony. To the right, an arcade opens with square piers and large arches, framing a recessed porch and a dark doorway with a balustraded balcony above. The roof edge is trimmed with a pinkish-red patterned frieze and a tiled roof, and a black wrought-iron fence crosses the front.

The mansion was built in 1905 by the licensed Portuguese builder Antônio Fernandes Pinto for Colonel Joaquim Franco de Mello, his wife Lavínia Daut Salles Lemme and their three sons. In 1921 it was enlarged to its present 35 rooms across 600 m² of built area. The city granted the habite-se occupancy permit in 1932.

The house takes its name from Colonel Joaquim Franco de Mello, a wealthy farmer who founded a town in the São Paulo interior and named it Lavínia, after his wife. He lived here with Lavínia Daut Salles Lemme and their sons Raul, Raphael and Rubens; today one of the heirs, Renato Franco de Mello, still occupies the mansion. Inside, a jacaranda bench from the 18th century and colonial-era furniture remain.

The mansion stands at Avenida Paulista 1919, in Cerqueira César, behind a black wrought-iron fence that separates the front garden from the pavement. It is listed by CONDEPHAAT and Conpresp, and it remains a private family home, so visits are not open to the public; the facade and the garden setback are seen from the street.

This is the last remaining home from the first residential period of Paulista Avenue between 1891 and 1937. Today it stands surrounded by modern skyscrapers and financial buildings, forming a reminder of a vanished chapter in the city's development.