On July 17, 1917, the faculty and students moved into spacious wooden buildings with wide verandahs and windows open to the sea breeze.

On September 11, 1931 one of the worst hurricanes to hit Belize took 2,500 lives including 11 Jesuits at Loyola Park, where the buildings were leveled and splintered.

Its 21 buildings include Fordyce Chapel, a large fieldhouse and auditorium that accommodates many diocesan events, and 17 classroom buildings—including two designed and built by the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program.

The spacious campus includes two football fields and is adjacent to National Stadium, built in the 1960s, which hosts international events and has grown into the Marion Jones Sports Complex.

The press release for its opening described its purpose: "One of the most valuable educational techniques of our day, co-operative search for truth, gives adult learners an opportunity to meet together, face a problem in common, think it through as a group, and solve it if possible."

Initial courses were “The Art of Thinking”, “Effective Speaking and Parliamentary Practice”, “Capital and Labor”, and “Business Ethics”.

The first class of 55 men and 27 women began a program aimed at providing leadership training for people who had finished high school and wanted post-secondary education that was unavailable in Belize at the time.

The Extension Department is now in its fourth location, still in the center of the city, accessible to the students who work during the day and study at night.

This expanded into what in the British tradition is called Sixth Form, a two-year program leading to Advanced Level Examinations ("A-Levels") out of Cambridge University in England.

Over 200 graduates of Sixth Form have received scholarships from the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States to finish their bachelor's degree tuition-free.

The school exists to educate academically talented young men in a Jesuit environment of self-discipline, love of learning, and service to others.

There are approximately 50 teachers and two counsellors serving in the following departments:[4] The main campus of St. John's College is named in honor of Fr.

Banished from the Spanish colonies, he retired to Italy and wrote a five-volume Latin poem, Rusticatio Mexicana, that has made him the national poet of Guatemala.

After completing his course work, he was asked to defend the entire field of philosophy in a public disputation in July, just after his exit examinations.

"John opened the discussion with great clarity and profoundness, but after returning to his own quarters, was seized with the Roman Fever," a particularly virulent form of malaria, that led to his death at the age of 22.

Prominent graduates who entered government service and had attended some division of St. John's College include Emil Arguelles, Johnny Briceño, Jorge Espat, Manuel Esquivel, Francis Fonseca, Ralph Fonseca, Caritas Lawrence, R.S.M., Zenaida Moya, Said Musa, George Cadle Price, and Bishop Dorick M. Wright.