Enjoying close commercial ties to the British Empire, in 1830 Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas donated land in the area for the benefit of the new St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, the oldest in existence in Buenos Aires. A growing community from the United States established the first Methodist church nearby in 1836. The growing importance of the area as a financial center was highlighted by the 1854 establishment of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. San Nicolás remains the financial center of Argentina, something underscored by the presence of the Argentine Central Bank and the National Bank, Argentina's largest. This area also saw the opening of the first railway station in Latin America, which went in service in 1857, facing what today is the Colón Theatre.