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Our History at Santa TeresitaThe desire and the resolve to meet the ever-changing needs of the local San Gabriel Valley and the wider Southern California communities motivates the continuing history, growth and progress of Santa Teresita.
The history of Santa Teresita began in 1930. In 1930, Father Leroy S. Callahan, as the representative of Bishop Cantwell, asked the sisters to open a tuberculosis sanatorium for the care of young women.
The Sisters founded the sanatorium on a three-acre plot in Duarte, California when orange groves still covered the land and the population totalled about 300. With five beds and a $22,500 loan, the Sisters converted an old farmhouse, some small cottages and a barn into Santa Teresita Sanatorium. The patroness of this foundation was Saint Therese, the French Carmelite nun canonized in 1925 who died of tuberculosis. Her name in Spanish is Santa Teresita – known as “The Little Flower.”
By 1955, the cure for TB was found which turned our mission at Santa Teresita to acute care. Subsequent to this new service, came ancillary services to support the new mission. In 1959 the St. Joseph Chapel was dedicated by Cardinal James McIntyre. This Chapel enriches the culture of sacred art at Santa Teresita through the beauty of its sculptured works masterfully created by Rudolph Vargas. In 1964 our Manor Skilled Nursing Facility was built with 133 bed capacity. In 1967 Hayden Child Care Center was established to accommodate working parents. Madonna Hall was built in the mid 1960’s, a two-level structure approximately 9,000 square feet, which provides space for meetings, conferences, special functions and community fund raisers and events. In 1981 the Office Building was built and provides space for Administration and physicians to facilitate their service to Santa Teresita. A new surgery wing was built in 1986 with the outpatient component in 1987. As the year 2000 approached a multiphase building project was established which remodeled the east wing of the hospital for skilled nursing (now Bethany Assisted Living) and added a new entrance at the south end called the Sacred Heart Lobby.
In 2004, with the current shortcomings of reimbursement for acute care, is was decided that Santa Teresita go back to our core competencies of a continuum of long and short-term care with strong support of comprehensive rehabilitation services, pastoral care and inter-generational activities.
Since that time programs surrounding the enhancement of life of our elderly residents have developed into what Santa Teresita is today. Our educational services have now broadened into internship programs of gerontology and pastoral care as well as Senior University programs. This new development moves us into a new dimension of service whereby we now serve our residents and teach the culture of life to the ecclesial community.
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