The Rebirth of La Casa de Maria

Cindy Faith Swain, Director of La Casa de Maria, has vivid memories of the day a Santa Barbara treasure was all but destroyed. It was January 8, 2018, when the staff and 120 retreatants were mandatorily evacuated from the historic 26-acre property due to anticipated torrential downpours. Since 1973, La Casa de Maria had dutifully served the community as a spiritual retreat center for people of all faiths and backgrounds – there was no reason to believe that this rain would be different than any others before.

“No one had a clue about what was coming the following morning,” Swain remembers. “Our staff had a big rally in the courtyard and then began placing sandbags around our buildings. At one point, one of our groundskeepers said, ‘Do we really think this is going to be enough?’” By noon, we evacuated the property and relocated our guests elsewhere. The next day, mud and debris rushed down the Montecito hillsides and wiped out 14 of the property’s 26 acres. Nine buildings were destroyed.

“It just massacred the land,” Swain says. “We were in complete disbelief, trying to wrap our minds around what we were witnessing. It was so painful.”

Although La Casa de Maria has endured many changes through the years, this time it was different and has left its mark on the land and the community that has stewarded it for nearly 80 years. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart purchased the location in 1942 and turned it into a novitiate for young women training to join the order as nuns. Years later, the sisters turned the property into a retreat center for Catholic married couples, then La Casa became the interspiritual retreat and conference center we know today that accommodates 10,000 to 12,000 guests each year. 

La Casa is now in the midst of another transformation with the restoration and reopening of the retreat center. Unlike other changes in the past, this project will literally involve being built from the ground up. Though over five acres of certified organic vegetables and citrus trees still stand, La Casa lost dozens of ancient oaks and sycamore trees in the mudflow and plans to replant and landscape the 14 destroyed acres and rebuild the square footage lost to the mud. There are also plans to expand the farm-to-table produce to contribute to the homesteading and sustainability of the property.

If all goes to plan, La Casa de Maria hopes to reopen in late 2023. The total rebuild will cost tens of millions of dollars, but the initial target is to raise two-thirds of that amount to get the property back to operational status and welcome people back to the retreat center as soon as possible. 

As Swain says, “The vision is in the silver lining as we reinvent the property in a way that is even more beautiful, sustainable, and functional than it was before.”