By Julie BUTCHER

On Thursday, July 18, Glendale’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) heard the same detailed presentation about the city’s plans for Rockhaven that was presented to the community on July 10 at a meeting at the Montrose-Crescenta Library. The conclusions and professional recommendations will be shared with the Glendale City Council in advance of deliberations at Council planned for Tuesday, Aug. 20.

“Tonight, the Glendale Historic Preservation Commission expressed concern that the museum and landscaping proposal puts the cart before the proverbial horse in not securing the buildings from further damage first. I hope the City Council takes their comments to heart before making their decision to move forward on the proposed project. Senator Portantino stipulated what the $8 million should be used for and repairing the buildings was part of it. Both projects are equally important,” a public commentator shared with the Crescenta Valley Weekly after the meeting.

“. . . if we put in an air conditioning system that sits there for three years until we find someone to put in a museum, it seems like it’s a little bit of the cart being put before the horse,” HPC chair Chris Cragnotti observed. “I would prefer to see – before we do any modification inside to create a space for a museum we all would love to have but don’t presently have a plan in place for – a nice space outside, and spending as much as is left to seal up those buildings.”

Nurse Agnes Richards opened Rockhaven Sanitarium in 1923 as an innovative place for the treatment of mentally ill women. At the time, the Crescenta Valley was a popular place for sanitariums and treatment facilities. In 2008 the City of Glendale bought the 3.4-acre property, located at 2713 Honolulu Ave. and composed of 15 buildings built between 1920 and 1972 surrounded by lush serene gardens, and has made numerous failed attempts to develop it. In July 2021, Senator Anthony Portantino secured $8 million in state funds to “to renovate and preserve the historic Rockhaven property for the public to enjoy and appreciate as a museum.”

Reporting to the HPC on the input received from the community at the July 10 meeting, consultants shared what the public wants to see at the site: a park, community center, classrooms, artist studios, galleries, workshop rooms, a yoga studio, a tea house. The community does not want the property to be subdivided nor does it want affordable housing on the site, nor does it want the future deterioration of the buildings.

“The Pines Cottage was chosen to be a museum because it could be untouched,” Friends of Rockhaven president Joanna Linkchorst told the commission. “The Friends of Rockhaven have always advocated for the least amount of change and the greatest amount of preservation. We’ve envisioned more like a house museum – everything would remain the same way it was.”

Linkchorst added that the grant does not call for a museum; it calls for a future museum. “Maybe some of the $8 million can be saved for what else the grant calls for – stabilizing the existing historic buildings that need help.”

“We’ve envisioned Rockhaven Park to include a demonstration garden of California native plants. And I love the idea of solar panels,” Linkchorst also noted.

Susan Bolan also addressed the HPC urging a balance for the landscaping, having landscapers consider both history and conservation. She reminded the body that there is a well on-site and that there could be future coordination with the Crescenta Valley Water District (CVWD), which owns the well. Bolan reiterated concerns from the immediate neighbors regarding parking and entry from Hermosa Avenue and suggested that parking near the Nurses Cottage that is currently under consideration be deemed temporary until a larger parking lot can be built on the west side of the property in an area that is currently vacant.

“We’ve been waiting for this project for a long time – for 15 years,” she said.

Responding to proposals for housing on the site, Bolan said that “as preservationists, you need to look at what is there rather than building something new.”

Commissioner Catherine Jurca commended the thoroughness of the presentation and added, “Your affection for this property comes through when you talk about it.”

Jurca advocated for paying attention to all the buildings.

“We don’t want point two to be relegated to point one,” she said. “The urgent matter is the condition of those buildings.”

Glendale Historical Society advisory council member Francesca Smith called into the meeting.

“Number 2 of the grant agreement specifically says to ‘carry out deferred maintenance on other site buildings as needed to counteract deterioration,’” she said. “If that’s not being done, I don’t see how we can take this grant and go in the direction we want to.”

Historic preservation planner Jay Platt summarized the city’s current approach:

“This project is very limited in scope based on what the city council directed staff and the consulting team to work on within the parameters of the $8 million grant,” Platt said. “Obviously, there’s more work to be done at Rockhaven. Future uses and users are still unknown. We’ve taken comments from the community; we’ll hear more tonight I’m sure – you may have comments about the future.”

“The city council has certainly heard that people want this to be solved and we want to find a way to make Rockhaven come back alive, but we don’t know exactly how that’s going to happen. We don’t know what’s coming. Right now there’s litigation between the city and the Friends of Rockhaven so we can’t work with Friends of Rockhaven right now to even talk about programming, the collection, or anything. It’s likely that will change in the future but right now we don’t have any idea what could come,” said Platt.