At the beginning of the 20th century, the city of São Paulo had three Hortos: the "Horto de São Paulo", better known as Horto da Cantareira, created in 1896 by Alberto Löfgren; the Horto do Museu Paulista, which was first planted in 1898 by the Museum's director, Hermann von Ihering; and the Horto Oswaldo Cruz, created in 1917 by the botanist Frederico Carlos Hoehne. All of them no longer exist with their original functions, but they preserve, in their spaces, some built and plant elements that are testimonies of the creation of these places. In this context, this article aims to make a brief history of these gardens, their insertions in maps of the time, the investigation of the fate they had and some components that preserve their memory today. Methodologically, the research used textual, cartographic and iconographic references present in primary documents, articles, theses and dissertations, as well as in the sites that house these places, in order to assess the objectives to be achieved. Through the material collected, it was possible to visualize and understand the locations of the mentioned gardens, their current uses and remaining elements.