McGroarty Arts Center was founded in 1953 in the historic home of John Steven McGroarty.  Mr. McGroarty was born in Pennsylvania in 1862.  By the age of 35, he had already served as a school teacher, a journalist, a justice of the peace, treasurer of Luzerne County, and had been admitted to the Bar and started his own legal practice.  In 1901, after a failed mining venture, John and his wife Ida Lubrecht McGroarty settled in Tujunga, California in hopes that the clean air would ease John’s asthma.  That same year, Mr. McGroarty joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times.

McGroarty wrote for the L.A. Times for more than 40 years, authoring the weekly comment column, "Seen from the Green Verdugo Hills," which he continued to write during his two terms in the House of Representatives.  He wrote several poems and plays, most notably the Mission Play, which was a three-hour pageant that portrayed the history of the California missions. The play ran for twenty years and was seen by over two million people!  In 1933, Mr. McGroarty was appointed Poet Laureate of California, a position which he held until his death in 1944.

The McGroarty house was built in 1924 on the same foundation of his previous house from 1923 that had burned down.  McGroarty named the house “Rancho Chupa Rosa,” after the indigenous plant, which was prevalent on the property.  Ida McGroarty lived in the house with John until she died in 1940; John continued to live in the home until his death in 1944.  Upon his death, Mr. McGroarty’s niece inherited the home.  Local organizations like the North Hollywood Women's Club and the Federation of Chapparal Poets convinced the City of Los Angeles to purchase the home and the surrounding grounds in 1953.  The house was declared an historic-cultural monument (#63) in 1970.

The Department of Recreation and Parks managed McGroarty Arts Center from 1953 until 1974, when management was transferred to the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.  In 1995, McGroarty Arts Center was privatized, and since then it has been operated by a non-profit organization known as the Friends of McGroarty Arts Center, in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs.