The historic Casa de Rosas Campus, located near the University Park and Adams–Normandie HPOZs, has filled the needs of its community since 1893. The four-building Mission Revival style complex has been everything from a private kindergarten to a hotel to military barracks for more than one hundred years. Casa de Rosas is now beginning its next chapter: safe, supportive housing for veterans. 

Master architect Sumner P. Hunt designed Casa de Rosas as a purpose-built private kindergarten. Completed in 1893, The Froebel Institute led the “kindergarten movement” in Los Angeles. The Froebel approach to early education became so popular that it was incorporated into the public-school curriculum. Enrollment dropped, and Casa de Rosas became home to the Girls’ Collegiate School and, later, a hotel, military barracks, and the L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics Foundation.  

After World War II, social crusader Essie Binkley Locy West purchased the property as the home for a women’s shelter, known as the Sunshine Mission. West trained as an evangelical preacher under Aimee Semple McPherson at the Foursquare Church, where she also served as the Musical Program Directory. A talented trumpeter, West would often play the instrument as she preached down Skid Row, earning her the name “the Angel of Skid Row.” She opened the Sunshine Mission as part of her Old Time Faith ministry. Religion remained a key programmatic element of the mission until West’s death in 1976.  

The Sunshine Mission was one the first shelters exclusively for unhoused women in Los Angeles and welcomed women of all races, ages, abilities, and circumstances. The mission provided shelter, mentorship, and in-house employment. Notably, the Sunshine Mission treated each woman as an individual with unique needs. This differed from other women’s services that enforced conformity to ideas about motherhood and marriage. The mission was so successful that women arrested on the street were sometimes brought directly to the Sunshine Mission instead of jail.  

After rehabilitating more than 200,000 women, the Sunshine Mission dissolved in 2008. The campus sat vacant for years, exacerbating existing damage from arson fires, vandalism, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. 

After a construction company mistakenly began demolishing a part of the complex in 2016, the interior features of one of the buildings were left open to water damage, dry rot, and mold. In 2015, the Housing Community Investment Department of Los Angeles (HCID) issued an RFP to redevelop the site, and the winning development team set out to create urgently needed affordable housing for veterans by using sensitive infilling, retaining the open space between the buildings, and avoiding the demolition of the badly damaged northeast building. To receive the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit, the project team collaborated closely with the Office of Historic Preservation and the National Park Services to meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Historic spaces and character-defining features were retained and restored, and sensitive updates were made to meet the community’s needs. 

The $18-million restoration effort successfully rehabilitated the four historic buildings into 37 residential units—studios, one and two-bedroom units—plus management offices, common spaces, laundry rooms, and fitness rooms. The project also included seismic strengthening and reconstruction of damaged roofs, floors, and stairs. The Casa de Rosa’s exterior aesthetics and landscaping were restored using historic photos. Today, Casa de Rosas offers safe, permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans and their families. The latest chapter in Casa de Rosas’ history shows what can be achieved when preservation is used to uplift marginalized groups while celebrating local L.A. history. 

The Conservancy recognized Casa de Rosas’ epic rehabilitation—and the crucial need it serves for L.A.’s unhoused veterans—with a Preservation Award in 2022. 

As a part of the Los Angeles Women’s Landmarks project – a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation – the Casa de Rosas campus is one of eight designated LA Historic-Cultural Monuments selected for an amendment to its historical narrative. This amendment is an important step forward in officially recognizing women’s contributions to Los Angeles’s cultural heritage and preserving places that reflect the City’s diverse histories. Only 2% of the 1,300 existing HCM nominations  represent women.  

The original HCM nomination did not include extensive historical research, and, as such, the 1981 designation does not properly recognize the full scope of women’s contributions to the site’s significance. Through a partnership with the University of Southern California, Master of Heritage Conservation student Morgan Richmeier researched the role of Essie Binkley Locy West and the significance of the Sunshine Mission. The HCM record should be updated to reflect this history.