[2][3] Lopo Gonçalves, besides having kept several commerce businesses in the city, was also an alderman of Porto Alegre for two mandates, staying as a substitute in a third period.

The Manor House was his summer home, since the Cidade Baixa neighborhood, in the 19th century, was outside the urban limits of the city, being considered a rural area.

During this period, the Manor House became the family's permanent residence, and was expanded and remodeled by Maria Luísa: a small internal patio was built, a turret was added, and an old room was demolished.

However, this type of organization could be much more oppressive for enslaved workers, since it greatly increases the masters' surveillance over their activities, decreasing the possibilities of articulation among them.

The third element concerns the very concept of the senzala, which is always a separate structure from the house and aims to preserve the "intimacy and daily life" of the slave-owning whites.

In order to do so, SASSE asked the City Hall to demolish the Manor House and open a road that would divide the property, which was denied by the General Plan Council and the Urbanism Division.

At the time, the situation of the poor installations was taken to the local press by some members of the preservationist movement and, in 1978, a commission coordinated by historian and university professor Moacyr Flores was formed to transform the Manor House into the Porto Alegre Museum, which was temporarily located at 291 Lobo da Costa Street.