Later, it was extended, urbanized and ornamented, remaining with a straight line, with the exception of its end. Its evolution is intertwined with the history of Caxias , whose urban center remains as the main point of the city, and still holds several architectural examples of interest.
Its origins date back to before the official foundation of the settlement, in , which began as an Italian colony. The stretch that the street occupies borders an old indigenous camp known as the Campo dos Bugres. Later, European troopers and explorers started using this path, which in the middle of the 19th century began to be definitively cleared, without, however, a real road being opened.
Urbanization began shortly after the foundation of the Fundos de Nova Palmira colony, situated on the edge of the Rio Grande do Sul plateau, with its official headquarters being established in Nova Milano , in the 1st of the 17 leagues in which the colony was divided. Today, the site is located in the municipality of Farroupilha. The center of the settlement was marked with the opening of the Dante Alighieri Square , where the Mother Church was built, bordered on its north side by Rua Grande.
In , the colony was baptized Caxias, and in , when the first urban plan was discarded because of its errors, the colony's director Luiz Manoel de Azevedo drew up the second layout of the center, following the Roman grid model.
In it, the Rua Grande was already named Silveira Martins Street, and occupied only nine blocks in length. Soon, stores and boarding houses were established there, as well as public festivals and meetings, but the suburban extensions to the east and west, where the old road penetrated into the countryside, would remain very precarious until the beginning of the 20th century. Between and , the central stretch was finally straightened, the buildings that had been erected without order were demolished, and the implementation of the urbanization plan began.
