The school was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1862 and has grown to include pre-primary as well as six primary and six secondary years.

In 1862, President Gabriel García Moreno brought members of a German Jesuits Order to manage the National Polytechnic School and the Quito Astronomical Observatory.

[1] They also opened and managed a school that in colonial times was called San Luis in the heart of old Quito.

[citation needed] It was still subsidized by the state until 1901, when the liberal government forced its privatization.

[citation needed] In 2011, San Gabriel opened a coeducational primary unit, beginning with the first grade.