The original Poortersloge was built between ca. 1395 and 1417 and was destined to be the meeting place of the commercial elite of Bruges. The Society of the White Bear settled there. Founded in or around 1380, this Bruges knightly jousting club, long after the legendary exploits of Baldwin I, was given permission by the city to place the image of its mascot, a shield-carrying bear, in a niche in the facade. In the fifteenth century, the city became the owner of the Poortersloge. In the sixteenth century, the ground floor was used as a training room by the fencers' guild of Saint Michael. The Free Art Academy, founded in 1717, was located there from 1720 to 1890. A beginning of urban art collection was created and preserved there. Between 1805 and 1825, a new building was built in exactly the same style as an extension of the existing building and partly above the vaulted Kraanrei. A new stone tower was built. At the end of the nineteenth century, the State became the owner of the Poortersloge and housed the Bruges department of the State Archives in it. Two adjacent houses in the Academiestraat were purchased for expansion. In 1974 the Poortersloge was protected as a monument together with 75 other buildings in Bruges. In 2012, the State Archives moved to new buildings on Predikherenrei. The city of Bruges again became the owner of the Poortersloge in 2014. At the end of 2016, the building was given a function as an exhibition space for contemporary art.