Pomaire owes its name to Curaca Pomaire who arrived to flat fertile land, a little to the north of where Pomaire is situated today, with a group of indigenous people in 1482. In 1583, due to the growth of its population, the tribe moved Pomaire's current position which is surrounded by hills that were a source for the clay they needed for their pottery.

Domingo Pomaire, who was born in 1690, was the first indigenous person to be baptized in the region. His son, Tomas Pomaire, was the first governor of the area between 1742 and 1745 and since then, Pomaire remained as the town's name.

From the middle of the 19th century, Juan Bautista Salinas and his wife Remigia Castro Montana began to motivate the local habitants to produce more pottery so that it could be sold later at El Cardonal market in Valparaiso. From 1853, a caravan of carts filled with pottery would regularly travel to Valparaiso just before Christmas to sell their wares and from there, continue on to the Virgen de Lo Vasquez Sanctuary for the local religious celebrations at that time.

During the rest of the year, the local potters would often visit neighbouring landowners and farm workers to exchange pottery for food.

The artisans have conserved the tradition of working with clay using basically the same techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation.

In 1982, the first Chilean soap opera filmed in colour (called "La Madrastra" or The Stepmother) used Pomaire as a backdrop. It was about a Chilean that was stranded overseas and who had to make pottery in order to save enough money to return home (to Pomaire).

More recently, Pomaire has been producing a lot of dried plants and flowers, often quite colourful, as a compliment to the pottery.