According to Jaime Bagué in his publication Del Ingenio Azucarero Patriarcal a la Central Azucarera Corporativa, Hacienda Santa Elena was established in 1778 just west of La Plata River in Toa Baja by Juan Rijos Feduchi, a European immigrant who came to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic.  Lizette Cabrera Salcedo in her book De los Bueyes al Vapor states that Hacienda Santa Elena was established during the last decade of the 18th Century which approximates the statement by Bagué.  José Ferreras Pagán in his 1902 book Biografía de las Riquezas de Puerto Rico states that Santa Elena was established in 1790 by Juan Rijus Feduchi, which is consistent the statements by Bagué and Tapia.

Available at the Library of Congress is the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER Report) prepared for Hacienda Santa Elena in 1977 which includes pictures by Jack E. Boucher.  The report states that in its early days, the five hundred acre hacienda originally established in 1790 by Juan Rijos Feduchi, sheltered an oxen-driven vertical sugarcane crusher made out of wood in its imposing industrial building and that it once had a five-vat Jamaican Train and  a rum distillery. According to the HAER Report, Rijos Feduchi sold the hacienda to a Dr. Figueras sometime during the late 1820s or early 1830s.  Ferrerás Pagán states that under the ownership of Dr. Figueras, Santa Elena was the first sugar factory to turn to steam on the North part of the island sometime between 1831 and 1839 (steam power technology was not introduced in Puerto Rico until 1831).  It was Dr. Figueras who added the iron structural reinforcements that allowed the old facilities to accept a new Mirrlees & Watson steam powered engine.  It is this architectural adaptation that represents the hacienda's most important characteristics.  

The court case Gauthier v. Fonalledas et al, 204 F.2d 480 (1st Cir. 1953) decided May 22, 1953 gives some light regarding the ownership history of Hacienda Santa Elena. Although the case involves four agricultural properties situated in Toa Baja, Vega Alto and Dorado, one of these properties was Hacienda Santa Elena. The case establishes the name of its original owner as Juan Rijos Teduche not Rijos or Rijus Feduchi and the name of the person that acquired the hacienda from him as Miguel Folgueras Bosch not a Dr. Figueras. In summation, the facts of the court case states are the following.

“Many years ago” Juan Rijos Teduche ( -1836) and his wife Nicolasa Correa owned several agricultural properties. Upon their deaths, the properties were inherited by their children, the succession of Rijos Correa consisting of their seven children, Santiago Rijos Correa ( -1869), Eduardo Rijos Correa, Juan Rijos Correa, Belen Rijos Correa, Encarnacion Rijos Correa, Rafaela Rijos Correa and Mariana Rijos Correa who married Spanish immigrant from Lérida, Catalonia, Miguel Folgueras Bosch (1820-1887) in 1847. At the deaths of Miguel Folgueras Bosch (1820-1887) who had been preceded in death by his wife Mariana Rijos Correa, the succession of Folgueras Rijos came into existence, consisting of their six children Carmen Folgueras Rijos ( -1895), José Folgueras Rijos ( -1916), Mariana Folgueras Rijos (1854-1927), Rafaela Folgueras Rijos ( -1927), Encarnacion Folgueras Rijos ( -1920) and Teresa Folgueras Rijos ( -1913). Carmen and Mariana were mentally incompetent, their brother, José and after his death in 1916, their sister Rafaela, were appointed as their tutors. At the time Rafaela Folgueras Rijos death, she was the sole and universal heir of her competent brother and sisters, José, Encarnación and Teresa, and of her two incompetent sisters, Carmen and Mariana. By her will Rafaela Folgueras Rijos constituted Antonia Gautier Borrás, as her sole and universal heir. It is worthwhile mentioning that the facts in another court case titled Antonia Gautier v. Borras decided by the US District Court of Puerto Rico in 1928, state that Rafaela Folgueras Rijos died in Menton, France and that Mariana Folgueras Rijos died in Barcelona. This case is about the illegal appropriation of money by Francisco López Sanchez, the agent, administrator or trustee in Puerto Rico in a fiduciary or trust capacity of Rafaela and Mariana who always lived abroad.

In 1891 the brother and sisters comprising the succession of Folgueras Rijos, with the exception of the two incompetents Carmen and Mariana, sold and conveyed to Spanish immigrant from Catalonia who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1863 Jaime Fonalledas Garriga (1837-1913), their participations in the Hacienda Santa Elena. In the same year Fonalledas Garriga entered into a contract with the other members of the succession Rijos Correa other than Mariana, under which, in consideration of a loan granted by him to them, he entered into possession of the the property with the right of cultivating it and collecting his debt out of the fruits of the hacienda. Under the deed with the succession of Folgueras Rijos, Jaime Fonalledas Garriga was converted into an administrator of the participations of the two incompetents, Carmen and Mariana Folgueras Rijos.

In 1885 Miguel Folgueras Bosch acting for all of the succession of Rijos Correa as owners of Hacienda Santa Elena, had borrowed a sum of money from José Pons Bernard. In 1890 Pons Bernard brought suit to collect this debt and to this end he attached the participations of all of the Folgueras Rijos brother and sisters in these properties. In 1891 the Folgueras Rijos brother and sisters paid off their shares of this debt but the incompetent sisters did not do so and in 1893 a judicial sale, pursuant to the previous attachment, was had of the participations of the two incompetents, Carmen and Mariana. At the judicial sale their participations in the properties were purchased by Jaime Fonalledas Garriga, who, as stated above, was in possession by virtue of the transactions which took place in 1891.

Jaime Fonalledas Garriga died on June 2, 1913, leaving as his only heirs his children Rosa Fonalledas Cordova, Gerónimo Fonalledas Cordova, Jaime Fonalledas Cordova and Gerardo Fonalledas Cordova. Hacienda Santa Elena was then possessed by the defendants ever since the death of their father in 1913 and that they have been receiving for themselves the yield and fruits of said properties and from that time they have been enjoying the use and enjoyment of the same as if they were their true owners. The case was decided in favor of Fonalledas declaring the transactions in 1891 as valid and not in bad faith and granting title to the property.

By 1917 all the sugar processing machinery and equipment of Hacienda Santa Elena had been dismantled and sold as scrap.  At that time, it still consisted of approximately five hundred acres of which one hundred were used to grow sugarcane.  The hacienda is today owned by a third generation Fonalledas family. The remains of Hacienda Hacienda Santa Elena are supposedly the only remaining structures of an 18th Century sugar factory on the island, and the only one where the mill on the ground floor was driven by oxen on the second level.