The Solís Theatre first document appeared on the 25th june, 1840 when a stockholders society was created. This group wanted to build an important theatre for Montevideo in those years and rent it to their own profit. The official inauguration of the Solís Theatre (named after the Spanish explorer who discovered the River Plate) was finally on August 25, 1856, in presence of the President of the nation, Mr. Gabriel Antonio Pereira, with the Opera "Ernani" written by Verdi. The theatre's owners also wished to build side buildings to locate stores, apartments to be rented, etc; different uses but only one goal: to obtain a rent. These side buildings were built between 1869 and 1874, according to the project made by the French architect Victor Rabu.
The historical analysis has allowed knowing the original operation of the theatre and each of every one of those money sources. From this analysis is clear the theatre's independence from the side wings as well as the independence between every store which created many street accesses. The building main functional characteristic in this period was the lack of contact between the different activities in the same block. The building was responding properly to the objectives, that is, a theatre in the center and commercial stores surrounding it.