It was once a walled-off place where foster kids and also children removed from abusive homes were placed under Los Angeles County care, and where thousands were physically and sexually abused all over again by county employees.
Now, the dark, horrific story of the former MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte, which operated from 1961 to 2003, begins a new, brighter chapter, replaced by a just-completed community park with children playgrounds, plus 202 affordable housing units under construction for underprivileged youth, seniors and the unhoused.
“What you are seeing here today being built is truly transformative. For decades it has had a very painful history,” said First District Supervisor Hilda Solis on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at the opening of the 5.6-acre Hilda L. Solis Community Park, and groundbreaking of the 8-acre Esperanza Village housing project.
A new law extended the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse. This set off 6,800 sexual abuse claims in the courts against the county, mostly from the Department of Children and Family Services and Probation Department from the 1960s through the 2000s.
The county reached a $4 billion settlement for these cases in April 2025, the largest in L.A. County history that is costing the county several years to pay. Many of the cases were from alleged abuse at MacLaren. The county was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for sexual abuse and neglect in 2002 and since then numerous individual cases have been filed in the courts.
Since its closure and more recent demolition, Solis and others said at the park opening and housing groundbreaking said the new projects will start a healing process, for the city and the county. But it won’t erase the horrors of abuse suffered by children under the county’s care.
“We acknowledge the walls witnessed the struggles of children, reminding us of the stories of those who suffered here. We carry the lessons of the past into a new future,” said Emilio Salas, executive director of the L.A. County Development Authority, who emceed the event.
MacLaren Hall was fortified with high walls and floodlights, casting an ominous feeling over the western part of the city just west of the 605 Freeway for several decades until its closure.
“My father would drive by in the ’70s and ’80s and see the walls that would encircle this property. The message was clear: Keep out. Stay away from this place. The legacy was dark,” said Councilmember Martin Herrera at the on-site ceremony attended by more than one hundreds VIPs.
“But today the walls are down. We are here to celebrate the opening up of this land and will welcome the community in,” he added.
At the 13.7-acre site, at 4024 Durfee Ave., workers broke ground Wednesday on the housing project that will be open to survivors of domestic violence, transitional-age youth (those exiting foster care), unhoused individuals and senior citizens. Low-income families and individuals must be earning 30% to 70% of the area median income to qualify.
The housing development will also have a health center with a community clinic, a senior care center and spaces for the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services.
The housing project is being built by Prima Development, a nonprofit housing builder and National CORE. The housing will cost $137 million, Solis said, while the park cost about $45.5 million to build. Together, these projects represent more than $182 million in investment.
Prima said it took input from the community since 2020 to gather ideas for housing elements, supportive amenities, and park features. Staffers knocked on doors of 2,000 nearby homes, asking what they’d like to see built there. They also held 10 public hearings, said Fernando Vasquez, president of Prima.
The park consists of two playgrounds, tennis courts, fitness areas, walking paths, basketball courts, an outdoor classroom and performance area and other educational features. On the north end is a regulation-size soccer field.
Beneath the field is a catch basin with a capacity of capturing 75,000 gallons of storm water from rains percolating down into the ground.
Officials hope the park will host soccer clinics in the summer months and maybe even a professional soccer game, said Alexa Washburn, chief development officer with National CORE.
The most obvious difference is to the neighbors, who now see community green space, and a future housing project where a walled-off building once stood.
“We are showing what it means to confront the history here before by changing a place defined by isolation, to a place of connection,” said Solis. “Here we have made the impossible, possible.”