Today, the colonia is a mix of old mansions and homes (with over 1,000 categorized as having architectural or historic value), small shops and businesses, tenements and abandoned buildings.

[5] While the neighborhood was established as an upper class country getaway over 100 years ago, today, it is fully absorbed into Mexico City's center.

These and a number of buildings built until about 1930 make up the 1,040 structures which are considered to have architectural and historical value cataloged by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.

[5] The center of the colonia is the Alameda Park with its Morisco Kiosk, located at the intersection of Dr. Atl and Salvador Miron Streets, near Metro Buenavista.

[9] The kiosk was designed and built in the late 19th century by José Ramón Ibarrola to be the Mexico Pavilion at the World's Fair of 1884 in New Orleans and of the Saint Louis Exposition of 1902.

After these events, the structure was brought back to Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century and installed on the south side of the Alameda Central.

Modern additions include film to block ultraviolet rays in the cupola and a Teflon coating to protect against acid rain.

[10] The kiosk and park host cultural activities such as popular bands, chamber orchestras and dance classes.

[11] In 1975, the museum underwent major reconstructive work for two years and then was re-inaugurated as the Museo Universitario del Chopo.

[8] it is located on the Ribera de San Cosme, which was the principle road connecting Mexico City with then-separate Tacuba in early colonial times.

In the mid 19th century, especially under Benito Juárez, haciendas and church lands were confiscated by the government and eventually broken into smaller farms and ranches.

In the late 19th century, many of these same smaller farms and ranches were broken up again into housing subdivisions as Mexico City began to grow outside of its traditional confines.

Although considered old today, it was one of the first “modern” colonias created north and west of Mexico City in the late 19th century.

[13] The Mexican Revolution caused a backlash against the wealthy of the city, and in some cases, residents of this neighborhood had to flee their properties, but the area still remained affluent during the first third of the 20th century.

[13] In the first half of the 20th century, several exclusive schools operated in the colonia, such as the Frances de San Cosme.

It was a girls’ school, whose students were referred to as “fine mares” (“les jeunes filles” in French/ “yeguas finas” in Spanish) by the nuns.

[5] However, in the 1930s, the middle class consisting of small business owners, professionals and government employees began to move in, and building in the colonia accelerated.

New religious constructions included the Josefinos Church in Byzantine style and the Espiritu Santo Parish with its sumptuous roof decoration.

It was bordered to the north by an industrial zone with the trains of the Buenavista station to the east and the new campus of the National Polytechnic Institute to the west.

Lower classes began to move in with apartment buildings and other co-housing either built from scratch or created by transforming the older mansions.

In Santa Maria, three properties on Eligio Ancona and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz streets were taken.