Populated originally by the Querandí people, a portion of the land today occupied by the city was deed to Pedro Gutiérrez by Governor Hernando Arias de Saavedra in 1615.

It was added to Martín José de Altolaguirre's extensive holdings (which would occupy most of northern La Matanza County) in 1775, and was in turn purchased by Francisco Ramos Mejía in 1808.

Prior to Mrs. Ramos Mejía's death in 1860, she bequeathed the property among her four children, the second of whom (her daughter, Marta) married a family ally in their struggles against Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas, Francisco Bernabé Madero.

Following Madero's death in 1896, these lands were parceled out to other manufacturers, and by 1900, an informal settlement (Villa Las Fabricas, or, "Factory Town") had been built by the growing numbers of immigrant laborers at the site.

The first school was built there in 1905, and the arrival of the Buenos Aires Western Railway in 1908 prompted the creation of the first settlement formally established at the site: Villa Circunvalación.