By Mary O’KEEFE

“We just want to keep moving forward, keep it moving and keep it on track,” said Bradley Calvert, director of community development City of Glendale, about the Rockhaven Sanitarium property. The historical landmark in Montrose/Glendale was for about a century a place for women to feel safe as they were treated for mental health issues. 

Since the City of Glendale purchased Rockhaven in 2008, the property has been in a seemingly never-ending battle for survival and for a decision from the City as to what exactly was to be done with the property. 

Friends of Rockhaven is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting historical Rockhaven. Over a year ago it filed a lawsuit against the City for what its members felt was inaction with the property and allowing its maintenance to lapse. Friends of Rockhaven, as well as other organizations, feared Rockhaven was a victim of “demolition by neglect.” This term refers to a property owner allowing a historic site to reach a state of deterioration that leaves no choice but to demolish. The City Council denied it was allowing this to happen.

Recently the two parties came to an agreement and the lawsuit was concluded. Calvert did not comment on the lawsuit itself stating that his department’s job was to move forward with planning Rockhaven’s future.

“We’re excited to see a vision that gets this out to the public,” he said. “It is a beautiful site, the grounds [and buildings] are beautiful.”

His goal is to meet with Friends of Rockhaven, and other public stakeholders, and gather information on the best steps to move forward.

“Obviously, there’s still a lot of work we need to do and now, with the settlement, there’s a lot of public engagement we would like to kick off,” he said. 

The present plan includes creating a museum on the property. This is something both the City and Friends of Rockhaven agree on. Calvert added he knows the Friends of Rockhaven would like the interiors, such as the bathrooms, left “untouched as much as possible” and is working with architects to achieve that.

“We want to provide a compromise solution that I think will meet the needs of the facilities but also respects the history,” he said. 

He agreed that Friends of Rockhaven has brought up many valid points in addition to keeping the property historically accurate; however, the City is still bound by regulations that include ADA and general access. 

“It’s a hard one to come to a solution with but I think we may have found something,” he said.

Calvert added his department is not quite ready to go to the public with this compromise and wants to talk to Friends of Rockhaven to get its input; however, he does feel a solution that all will agree upon is close and will be beneficial to all parties and the property. 

“We have a lead consultant but [Friends of Rockhaven] also has a sub-consultant [who] does specialize in historical work. The firm has a history with historical projects,” he said. 

According to the lawsuit settlement the consultant for the City is Architectural Resources Group. The company’s website does highlight its work with historical properties. 

In addition to a museum, Calvert said there need to be decisions in other areas of the property like what the other buildings will house and what programming will be planned. There are several small houses and buildings on the property. 

Calvert said he had reached out to Friends of Rockhaven to arrange a meeting.

“I think that what we’re doing now is the first step in the right direction to making sure that all these buildings can be preserved, maintained and respected,” he said.