It has been called the soul of Montecito — a healing place amid the oak woodlands of San Ysidro Creek, where people of all faiths could go to the mountain to pray, dance, sing, quilt, paint, or — if they felt like it — study Buddhism or beekeeping, and come away refreshed and ready to face the world again.
But these days, La Casa de María, the nonprofit interfaith retreat and conference center at 800 El Bosque Road, has all it can do to heal itself. Of 349 properties, or parcels of land, where the catastrophic debris flow caused structural damage in Montecito on January 9, La Casa was the hardest hit.
Beyond what insurance provides, La Casa will need at least $30 million in philanthropic funding to build back its former capacity for 12,000 annual visitors, most of whom were women, said Linda Alexander, executive director of the Immaculate Heart Community of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. The IHC, a nonprofit organization, purchased the 26-acre estate for $35,000 in 1943.