It was built on a block that is only 325 yards (300 m) away from the Cathedral of Saint James on a lot that once belonged to the family of famous chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo and had three monastery wings and a church.

[3] In 1653, the San Lucas School had a staff of only thirteen priests, a very small number compared to the size of the building; the Jesuits, however, made a major impact on the cultural and educational life in the Capitanía General of Guatemala.

The actual construction process lasted eight year and was made possible thanks to generous donations from parishioners; Porres' son, Diego, worked in this project as an apprentice and learned the trade so well, that he eventually became the city master builder.

[4] However, on March 4, 1751, the San Casimiro earthquake destroyed the church roof forcing the Jesuits to once again ask for help to the parishioners to rebuild; once again, the building was among the most beautiful of the city when the repairs were completed.

[5] Besides administrative redistributions, the Spanish King set a policy aimed to decrease the power of the Catholic Church,[6] which until that moment in time it was absolute over the Spaniards.

This policy of diminished church power was based on the Illustration and had six main points: y tenía seis puntos principales: The "Casa de Ejercicios" -"House of Spiritual Exercises"-, next to the San Lucas School was finished in 1767, but on April 2 of that year king Carlos III signed the Pragmatic Sanction by which he ordered the Society of Jesus to be expelled from all of his kingdom domains.

The order members in Guatemala were gathered, their properties confiscated and taken away from San Lucas school in the early hours of July 1, 1767 and then they were sent to the Gulf of Honduras, where there was a ship waiting for them to be taken abroad.

[9] After the independence of Guatemala from Spain in 1821, the Jesuit complex became public property once again and was in several lawsuits that lasted until 1829, when the regular clergy and the conservative Aycinena clan were expelled from Central America after the invasion of liberal general Francisco Morazán and the establishment of a secular government.

By 1865, the building was functioning as a vapor activated thread mill, but it was not profitable due to a lack of expert technicians and raw material; and by 1872, the Jesuits were once again expelled from Guatemala by the liberal regime of Justo Rufino Barrios.

[12] In 1884 City Hall made an announcement that it intended to transform the old Society of Jesus buildings into a market, in spite of the strong opposition from the neighbors that already had small shops on the plaza.