Los Vilos was built as a minor port for the import and export of merchandise, by means of supreme decree of the Treasury Department, signed by the President of the Republic at that time, Manuel Montt, and by his Treasurer, José María Berganza, on 3rd January 1855.

In April of that same year, the Government granted permission to the House of Gatica Brothers to build a pier, store rooms and buildings for commercial use. In 1857 the authorities decided to build a town in the Port of Los Vilos, and donated 25 blocks of land belonging to the Conchalí Treasury for public use, commissioning the engineer Hernán Jequier to plan the town, determine the value of the land and place plots for sale by public auction.

This decision by Montt’s government to equip Los Vilos as a minor port was so successful that it increased the commercial success of the whole country, and justified the existence of the informal settlement that was already located there, who practiced foreign trade illegally. From the roots of this informal settlement a hamlet grew, the origins of the future population. In this context, the official initiative only endorsed a situation that already existed due to force of facts.

One of the first buildings to be built in Los Vilos was precisely that which housed those in custody at the Customs Buildings. The construction of this building was authorized by Supreme Decree, in Santiago, dated 8 August 1856, and works began on 9 September of that year. In five months of work the costs involved rose to the sum of 1,550 pesos, an extremely high amount for that time. This was mainly due to the lack of skilled labor in construction.

The first inhabitants of Los Vilos bound their personal life plans to the development of maritime commerce. The successes achieved at certain junctures in time (expansion of mining and production of grain) made for a general atmosphere of prosperity. On the other hand, in times of recession, the national economy imposed harsh conditions for survival of the rising population. Small businesses and sea and beach laborers were turned into the archetypes of the first historical subjects of the Vileño landscape.

By the end of the 1850s Los Vilos is an established port. It is well organized administratively, has intense commercial activity, and grows larger with the arrival of each influx of ambitious settlers.