By Mary O’KEEFE

As Friends of Rockhaven prepares for one of its biggest fundraisers to benefit the historic property, it continues its stewardship by filing a lawsuit against the City.

On April 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church, Friends of Rockhaven will be hosting its Art on the Rocks boutique. There will be over 25 women artists displaying their art, all for sale and benefitting a good cause – Friends of Rockhaven.

It is fitting that the fundraiser focuses on women since that is exactly what Rockhaven Sanitarium’s founder Agnes Richards did 100 years ago. Richards was a nurse in the Midwest and West Coast. She saw the unfair and cruel treatment many, especially women, were receiving in mental institutions.

There is still a stigma today regarding mental health treatment but it is becoming more commonplace to talk about it. One hundred years ago, that conversation, especially about women – if it was talked about at all – took place in whispers and rumors. Having someone institutionalized was something most families didn’t want to talk about, which made it easier for some husbands to label their unwanted wife as mentally ill and pack them off to be forgotten. Their illness could be an actually diagnosed mental health condition, including depression, menopause or premenstrual syndrome … or having no physical ailment at all but just no longer was the object of their husband’s desire.

Richards gave women a safe, beautiful place to recover from whatever they, or their families, thought they were suffering. She respected them, she empowered them, and she treated them. Many were able to go back home; some returned after a while to Rockhaven while others never left and made Rockhaven their home.

The fact that this island of women’s history is still standing is actually a miracle for so many reasons, and Friends of Rockhaven has been the legacy’s champion for years. In that spirit, on Monday the organization filed a lawsuit against the City of Glendale.

“We formed as a non-profit to advocate on behalf of the community, and the community is tired of the City deferring proper maintenance,” said Friends of Rockhaven president Joanna Linkchorst. “We felt this was a move we needed to take to make sure that this historic place will be saved to tell the story of Rockhaven and women in the mental health system.”

According to the lawsuit, the City of Glendale and its city council failed to “comply with the Glendale Municipal Code and prevent waste of taxpayer funds and injury to the public property by failing to maintain and preserve historic property originally known as Rockhaven Sanitarium.”

Rockhaven is listed on the National and State Historic Registry. The Friends of Rockhaven’s suit refers to Glendale Municipal Code Title 15, Buildings and Construction, Historic Preservation, “Duty to maintain historic resources: Every owner of a designated historic resource, a resource pending designation as a historic resource, a potential historic resource, or a protected interior shall maintain and keep such resource in a manner that ensures its continued lawful and reasonable use, that ensures its continued eligibility for listing in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, California Register of Historical Resources, and/or the National Register of Historic Places, and ensures that it is not subject to (and actively prevents) ‘demolition by neglect,’ as well as deterioration, dilapidation and decay of any portion of such resource.”

The City of Glendale is the owner of Rockhaven.

The lawsuit also questions where, from the City’s Rockhaven-designated budget, the funds were spent.

“The budget for FY20-21 indicates that Rockhaven had a ‘Life to Date’ rehabilitation budget of just over $1 million. As of March 31, 2020 the City’s rehabilitation budget shows that it had a remaining balance of $44,000.00. The City appears to have expended nearly all of the $1 million budget for Rockhaven rehabilitation apparently without performing any identifiable work on the roofs as recommended by its experts.”

The issue Friends of Rockhaven has had for many years is the necessity for repairs to the roofs of the cottages that make up the former sanitarium. The buildings appear to be rotting from the top down.

Jason Sanders, attorney for Friends of Rockhaven, said in an interview with CVW the roof damage, exterior water damage and mold that has occurred over the years since the city purchased the buildings in 2008 is what triggered this lawsuit.

This caused the “historic resource to decay and dilapidate,” he said.

In 2020, CVW published an article concerning Rockhaven Demolition by Neglect: “Demolition by Neglect means the process in which the owner of a building or structure allows its ongoing deterioration over a period of time as a result of lack of maintenance, failure to secure it from pests or vandals, and/or failure to take reasonable measures to prevent ingress of water or wind through the roof, walls, or apertures, leading to deterioration and/or structural failure constituting a threat to public health and safety,” according to the City of Glendale’s Municipal Code 15.20.020.

CVW contacted the City of Glendale, which has not yet been served and therefore does not have a comment.

Next week we will look further into the lawsuit.

Just a quick background for those who do not know of Rockhaven’s legacy:

Richards bought several small homes in the 2700 block of Honolulu Avenue. She created a unique place where “ladies” (she never called them patients) would find the help they needed regarding mental health. She over aw the day- to-day running of Rockhaven until 1967 when she passed the reins over to her granddaughter, Patricia Traviss.

Traviss continued with her grandmother’s tradition of treating women with grace and dignity. The facility changed with the needs of its residents and became a popular place in the care of elderly women with dementia.

Traviss retired in 2001 and sold Rockhaven to a hospital corporation. Unfortunately the costs of upkeep for the location became too much so the corporation sold it to a developer who had plans to demolish the buildings, and its history, to build condos.

A grass roots effort was created to save Rockhaven and the City of Glendale purchased Rockhaven in April 2008 at a cost of $8.25 million.

 According to the City of Glendale records, “The City of Glendale acquired the property primarily to protect the historic nature of the site.”

The future looked bright for Rockhaven as it was proposed to be the site of a new library and a park.The property that had served the community for decades appeared to be gearing up to serve it once again. Then came the downturn in the economy in 2008, and the state’s elimination of redevelopment funds.

Since then questions have been raised regarding the condition of the property.