Two hundred and sixty years ago, the property belonging to the landowner General Ruiz de Arellano was divided for the first time. He donated part of his land to the Catholic Church to be sold and make money for building a chapel which was to be known as San Antonio Chapel, to honour San Antonio de Padua the saint patron of this town.
23 October 1730 the Church by decree created new districts amongst them Areco with jurisdiction over Cruz and Pesqueria. The San Antonio chapel was designated the main church for the region and this made the pueblo grow especially after Ruiz de Arellano gave powers to Chaplain Giles, 17 July 1750 to offer land to those willing to settle here. About twenty people accepted land and built their houses.
Documents dating from the 17th Century already call the area as Areco , same as the river and it was under the jurisdiction of Lujan until, in 1762 a brotherhood settled here on the right hand shore of the river and it became the Partido de San Antonio de Areco having as a centre the pueblo and the chapel.