By Mary O’KEEFE

On Saturday, Friends of Rockhaven held an unusual tour that, though limited, was very informative.

For many years Friends of Rockhaven offered tours of the historic Rockhaven Sanitarium property in the 2700 block of Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. Friends of Rockhaven is a non-profit, grass roots organization that was formed to help support and protect this woman-owned and -operated former sanitarium that is listed in the National and State Historic Registries.

The Rockhaven property was purchased by the City of Glendale in 2008.

Over a decade ago the organization started offering special tours in which docents would take visitors through the buildings, sharing the history of the woman who founded the sanitarium, nurse Agnes Richards, and the stories of many of the women who were cared for at Rockhaven including actress Billie Burke and the mother of actress Marilyn Monroe.

Guests would walk through the buildings; many walls still displayed flowery-wallpaper. Visitors could walk into rooms that still had items left by residents including Mother’s Day cards and brush and comb sets. Those taking the tour got a real feel of how Richards cared for her “ladies” (they were never called patients). Richards ran Rockhaven until 1967 when her granddaughter Patricia Traviss took over. The focus then was on women with dementia. The bottom line is Rockhaven was a place that offered women a safe place to recover from mental health issues and then, once they were healthy, could leave. It also offered a permanent home for others where they felt safe and were cared for with respect. Those early tours were great examples of how this woman-owned and -operated facility used art and nature to help heal women who needed support.

Then the buildings started decaying as regular maintenance, like taking care of roofs during rainfalls, was not performed by its owner, the City of Glendale. There were other maintenance issues as the buildings and the grounds began falling to neglect, according to Friends of Rockhaven.

Members of Friends of Rockhaven then took those on the tour to the outside of the buildings, not the inside. They were still able to walk the grounds and see the artwork displayed and some of the vegetation still in place. Guests would get a sense of the quiet oasis Richards had created.

But that was then and this is now. On Saturday, members of the Friends of Rockhaven – Joanna Linkchorst, president, and Mike Lawler, vice president – were locked out of the entire property.

The reason for the lock-out appears to be the lawsuit the Friends of Rockhaven filed against the City of Glendale concerning the lack of maintenance of Rockhaven.

Both Lawler and Linkchorst said the lawsuit asks the City to repair the roofs, do mold abatement and other general maintenance.

“We have waited 15 years,” Lawler said.

Linkchorst said the lawsuit was the last recourse they had since for all of these years they have asked the City to take care of repairs ­– and even offered to take care of the repairs themselves – but all requests and offers were ignored or denied.

According to Linkchorst, she received an email from Bradley Calvert, director of Community Development, City of Glendale, stating that as of last week the City had yet to be served with the lawsuit but “All communication to the City, from this point forward, should [be] through the Friends of Rockhaven’s legal counsel to the city attorney’s office, or to the City’s outside counsel when so directed.”

The organization received another communication from the City’s director of Community Services and Parks Onnig Bulanikian that stated, “We would need to put a pause on all work days and tours moving forward as well. As mentioned below, all communications will need to go to city attorney’s office.”

Last Saturday’s tour, which had been planned, then morphed into a walk around the Rockhaven property on the sidewalk. Linkchorst sent out a notice to all who had reserved a spot on the tour that access to the property had been denied and everyone but one person canceled their reservation. Linkchorst and Lawler showed up at the tour along with the lone tour participant – and CVW. Linkchorst explained why they had been locked out then began the tour, holding up a photo book of Richards’.

As the walk on Saturday progressed from the front of Rockhaven to the back of the property via the sidewalk, the only way to see the buildings Linkchorst was referring to was by peeking through the gate that surrounds the property. Although the tour was adjusted, the story of Rockhaven was so rich with women’s history, and the history of mental health treatment over the years, the experience was not diminished.

“No money is being asked for [in the lawsuit], just replace the roofs, do the mold abatement, drainage, paint – that sort of thing,” Lawler stated on the organization’s website.

The lawsuit, however, does ask for an accounting of the $1 million for Rockhaven that was budgeted by the City over the years.