These houses were built in the 18th century by the architect Francisco Guerrero Torres. 

They have also been called Houses of the Sun and the Moon because their facades display reliefs of those figures. 

In the house on the west side, which was the headquarters of the National Conservatory of Music for a time, there are frescoes by Rufino Tamayo depicting musical themes. 

Both buildings are examples of 18th-century Novohispanic architecture, using chiluca stone or stone moldings for doors and windows and tezontle for the walls. 

José Guadalupe Posada, an important engraver from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had his workshop in house number 20.