[3] Nova Odessa was founded on May 24, 1905, by Carlos José de Arruda Botelho, Secretary of Agriculture of the state of São Paulo, and then settled by Ukrainians and Latvians.

Its name is due to a visit Carlos Botelho made to the city of Odesa, Ukraine, from where he brought the style of its streets, and not because the first settlers were from there (as they were not).

[4] In the early 20th century, the area of present-day Nova Odessa was classified as an uninhabited land suitable for farming.

The first settlers to arrive in the area were immigrants from Ukraine, but, not adapting to agriculture (one of the pointed reasons for this is that they were not farmers originally), most of them soon abandoned the colony and moved to larger Brazilian cities.

[5] The city maintains or supports directly in several ways a wide range of departments, programs, groups and cultural institutions.