Location: Guayanilla​
Date Established: 1913
Date Ceased Operations: 1977
Annual Production Graph
Average Annual Production: 6,981 Tons
Best Production Year: 1960/18,144 Tons
Family Ownership: Lluberas

Central San Francisco originated from the consolidation of Haciendas Maria Antonia, Santa Rosa and Mercedes, the latter established in 1840 by Spanish immigrant from Villanueva y Geltrú, Catalonia, José Francisco Lluberas Mitchans (1806-1873).  It has also been reported that in the 1860s, Francisco Lluberas (sometimes spelled Lluveras) owned a large coffee hacienda in Yauco called Restaurada.  Upon the death of Lluberas Mitchans, Central San Francisco was owned by his son Gerónimo Lluberas de Torres y Figueroa (1834-1901) until his death.  It was then inherited by Gerónimo's children José Francisco (1872-1911), Arturo (1874-1938) and Rosa Lluberas Rodriguez de la Seda (1873-1930).  

Hacienda Mercedes had a sugarcane mill operated by oxen until 1865 when a steam engine was installed.  It had 3,000 acres of its own land of which approximately 500 were used to grow sugarcane irrigated with water from the Yauco River.  In 1901 Hacienda Mercedes stopped grinding sugarcane as the Jamaican Train process it used was obsolete and inefficient.  It then contracted with the Guanica Centrale to grind all the sugarcane it harvested for a 15 year period.  It was not until the 1913-1914 harvest season that modern equipment was installed where the old Hacienda Mercedes used to be and the newly created Central San Francisco had its first grinding season with production of 1,267 tons of raw sugar.

By 1920 Central San Francisco had established the first sugar refinery in Puerto Rico.  The better known Porto Rican American Sugar Refinery, Inc., manufacturers of Snow White Refined Sugar, was not established at Central Mercedita until 1926.  Arturo Lluberas Rodriguez de la Seda, who was married to my 1st Cousin 2x removed Asunción Negroni Albelda (1879-1968), won first prize in the June 1920 Industrial Fair held in Bayamón for his production of Lluberas Granulated White Sugar.   

Available at the Library of Congress are photos related to an Historic American Engineering Record (HAER Report) containing photos from 1977  by Jack Boucher.  Central San Francisco was one of the smallest central sugar mills on the island and the last privately owned to close down. The land around the sugar mill is now being used by Tropical Fruit SP, an Israeli controlled enterprise to grow mangoes.