The community is working to protect the property and get it opened as an historic park. For decades, the mild climate of the Crescenta Valley served as a haven for those seeking mental health rest and relief from lung ailments. In 2014 the City of Glendale began talking with contractors to allow them to build on the undeveloped property and make the existing buildings, built between 1920-1939, into some form of adaptive reuse. 2 reviews of Rockhaven 'Rockhaven Sanitarium, built in 1923, marked an important historical turning point in the development of safe and humane treatment of women with mental illness. And while there were originally plans to turn the historic location into a community center and public park, when the economy took a downturn, that project had to be put on hold.
The city of Glendale purchased the site for $8.25 million in April 2008. Ararat transformed the property into a nursing home, but, claiming it was too difficult to maintain, wound up closing its doors in 2006. Patricia continued to run the facility until 2001, when she retired and sold it to the Ararat Home of Los Angeles. The gorgeous grounds, which won a landscaping award in 1966, featured gardens, towering oak trees, grottos, ponds, flowerbeds, fountains, shaded patios, statuaries, and meandering footpaths.Īs Richards began to gradually withdraw from running Rockhaven in 1956, her granddaughter, Patricia Traviss, took over daily operations.
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By 1940, the expanded site, which was one of California’s first private mental health institutions, consisted of 15 Craftsman and Spanish Revival-style buildings, 12 lots of land totaling 3.3 acres, facilities to treat over one hundred patients, a small hospital, a dining hall, and a professional kitchen. She also eventually bought the original stone dwelling.
To house the growing number of residents, Richards began purchasing neighboring homes, as well as constructing new buildings on adjacent vacant land. She leased a two-story building with a stone façade (hence the name “Rockhaven”) on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose for $125 a month and took in six patients, whom she called “residents.” By the next year, the number of residents had grown to 24. After witnessing firsthand the poor treatment of the mentally ill while working in both San Bernardino’s Patton State Hospital and the Los Angeles County General Hospital (which is ironically where Gladys Baker gave birth to Norma Jean on June 1st, 1926), Richards decided to open her own “secluded sanctuary” to treat ailing women with dignity in a home-like setting. Image: View of the Oaks Cottage and surrounding landscaping at Rockhaven Sanitarium.Rockhaven Sanitarium, which was also known as the Screen Actors Sanitarium, was originally founded in January 1923 by a nurse named Agnes Richards. Rockhaven is one of the best remaining examples of an early 20 th century healthcare facility, and it represents a small but significant movement that sought to improve the conditions of mentally ill women during the period. Rockhaven was run by Richards’ granddaughter until 2001. Richards remained actively involved in the facility until her death in 1967. Rockhaven was one of the earliest woman-owned, women-serving, private sanitariums for mental health treatment in the nation. Richards’ vision was to create a peaceful, homelike setting where women could be cared for surrounded by gardens and lush landscaping. Rockhaven was founded in 1923 by Agnes Richards, a registered nurse who was inspired to found her own institution when she became discouraged by the way women with mental illness were treated by large, state-run facilities. On behalf of the Friends of Rockhaven, HRG successfully nominated the Rockhaven Sanitarium, located in Glendale, for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Historic Designation Approved for former Glendale Sanitarium
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