This article presents the results from research into architecture on the main commercial street in Ibagué (Colombia) between 1893 and 1950. Marking the boundaries of both space and time correspond to the identification of urban transformations during the time of the colonisation, the creation of the Republic, and Art Deco in the most important commercial area of the city. They are in direct relation to the agro-industrial economic model. The article concludes by synthesising the economic and political structure that transformed the society into a republic and how the commercial street led to the overlapping of advertising with the urban landscape, which resulted from the business identifying with development and beauty.