THE QUEEN OF ANGELS

The Dream Center is located on 8.8 acres just two miles from downtown Los Angeles, and a little over two miles from Hollywood. The 360,000 square foot facility has over 1000 rooms and a total of 9 buildings on campus. Formerly the Queen of Angels Hospital, this impressive 14 story building is viewed by over two million motorists each week on the Hollywood Freeway.

The Queen of Angels Hospital was founded by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1926. The site for the building was chosen because of the many advantages of the location. The lot sat directly in the heart of Los Angeles and was surrounded by commercial, cultural, religious, and urban society. The neighboring landowners objected to a hospital entering their area in fear of property value dropping. They protested a petition for rezoning before the City Council, and lost. Little did they know, that 70 years later the site would be the foundational piece that would help the area to survive.


Serving LA residents

The sisters solicited financial backing and even begged on the streets. These nuns were so devoted that they often went hungry to s ave money for the hospital. The total cost of the hospital was about $600,000.

The Queen of Angels had such a steady growth in patient admissions, births, and patient day care from 1926 to 1932, that they were forced to add additional wings to the hospital. They followed suit in 1938 and again in 1945 which was followed by a great increase in services. At one point in it's history, the vast majority of Los Angeles residents had been born at the Queen of Angels.

Click here to see a photo of the construction of the 1932 addition.


Hollywood filming site

Though it survived the great depression and dozens of hard times to follow, the Queen of Angels faced major financial difficulties in the 1980's. A sokution was found in early 1989 when the hospital merged with neighboring hospital, Hollywood Clara Barton Memorial Hospital. After more than half a century of serving Los Angeles, from movie stars to the poorest immigrants, the aging Queen of Angels hospital closed it's doors. Patients and staff were moved to the newer, renamed Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

The site was left vacant for over 6 years and used mostly as a filming site for Hollywood locals, until it was purchased by Pastors Matthew & Tommy Barnett in 1996. Click here to see a listing of TV shows and movies filmed on the campus.

The Queen of Angels Hospital and the surrounding area in 1952.



The founders of the Queen of Angels Hospital, the Franciscan Sisters.




During the 1938 construction, wings were added and the capacity of the hospital was increased.