The building was built as the residence of the family of the Portuguese-born Brazilian coffee producer António Clemente Pinto, Baron of Nova Friburgo, in the then capital of the Empire of Brazil.

With the design of German architect Carl Friedrich Gustav Waehneldt, dated 1858, the work began with the demolition of the old house.

After the death of the Baron and the Baroness, their son Antônio Clemente Pinto Filho, the Count of São Clemente, sold the property in 1889, shortly before the Proclamation of the Republic of Brazil, to an investor group, who founded the Companhia Grande Hotel Internacional (Grande Hotel Internacional Company).

Due to the economic crisis in the late 1880s and early 1890s (The Encilhamento), the venture went bankrupt, and its titles acquired by counselor Francisco de Paula Mayrink.

The seat of the executive branch of Brazil was the Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro.