The Biblioteca Publica Central building dates back from the early 19th century, when it was acquired privately, for the purpose of forming an elementary school for girls. For this purpose, Bishop Eulogio Guillow brought a group of Irish nuns to Oaxaca, including the superior mother Doña Patricia Cox.
When the foreign sisters returned back abroad, another religious group came from the  “Incarnate Word”, who founded the Colegio de San Jose for ladies, that functioned until the rise of the religious conflict, when a period began in which the campus was closed, leaving it temporarily in the hands of a board, and later for a brief time, the building served as the Escuela Normal Mixta in 1924.
Subsequently the board was dissolved and the property was sold to another individual, therefore producing a lengthy trial that resulted in the expropriation outcome dictated by the State Government.
On September 14, 1985  this property through an agreement issued by the State Governor, Mr. Pedro Vasquez Colmenares, became the Public Central Library, as a dependent  of the Department of Education, Culture and Welfare. Years before the library took its place here, remodeling for adequacy began on the building, as it had become an unsightly place in the neighborhood with shops filling the front areas to the street and other tenants in the building.