Rockhaven sanitarium professional#

Seeing notes to the Ararat staff still taped to the walls was particularly eerie. Patients’ rooms appear to be frozen in time, still awaiting the return of their occupants eight years later. When Glendale purchased the site, city workers put the mementos in storage, but Friends of Rockhaven retrieved several items to display, which made the experience of being there all the more creepy. Clothes were still reportedly hanging in closets and framed photographs arranged on nightstands. Many patients’ belongings were also left behind. Seeing them in such a state was absolutely eerie. When Rockhaven was shuttered in 2006, its buildings were left furnished. The tour, which lasted 90 minutes and consisted of about 25 people, was everything that I hoped it would be – and more! Our group got to walk through every square inch of the property – even through indoor areas, which I absolutely loved.Īnd yes, due to the peeling paint and stillness of the place, being there was definitely spooky, even in broad daylight. Friends of Rockhaven also conducts monthly tours of the premises, which is what the Grim Cheaper and I embarked upon this past Saturday. Thankfully, the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley and Friends of Rockhaven stepped in to care for the place. The facility’s fate is currently up in the air. In April 2008, the city of Glendale purchased Rockhaven and there were plans to turn the site into a community center and public park, but as funds dried up, so did the plans. Ararat found the property too difficult and expensive to maintain, though, so it was shuttered in 2006 and has been left vacant ever since. When Patricia subsequently retired in 2001, Rockhaven was purchased by the Ararat Home of Los Angeles and was transformed into a nursing home. Upon Agnes’ retirement in 1956, her granddaughter, Patricia Traviss, took over operation of the site.

Rockhaven sanitarium professional#

By 1940, the expanded 3.3-acre site was comprised of 15 structures, with facilities to treat over 100 patients, a small hospital, a dining hall and a professional kitchen.Īgnes believed that idyllic surroundings would aid in her patients’ healing processes, so she made sure that Rockhaven’s grounds, which boasted gardens, trees, ponds, fountains, flowerbeds, patios, and walkways, were meticulously landscaped.Įven today, after sitting vacant for eight years, the place still shows shades of its former tranquility and beauty. She leased a two-story residence with a stone edifice and dubbed it “Rockhaven.” (Sadly, that original building was damaged in the Sylmar earthquake and was replaced by the one-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure pictured below in 1972.) Agnes originally took in 6 patients, but by the next year that number had grown to 24.Īs her patient list grew, Agnes began to purchase neighboring dwellings and to construct new buildings on adjacent plots of vacant land. Agnes wanted to create a home-like sanctuary to treat women suffering from mental illness and found the perfect spot to start it in Montrose. The sanitarium was founded in 1923 by a nurse named Agnes Richards. I covered Rockhaven’s history extensively in my post about the place last October, so I will just give you the CliffsNotes version here. So when Friends of Rockhaven contacted me last month to ask if I wanted to attend a tour of the property, I jumped at the chance! And what better time to do it than the day after Halloween?

Due to the fact that the place was gated and boarded up, I only got to see the outside of it, though. Sad day! Last September, I stalked an abandoned mental health institution named Rockhaven Sanitarium where Marilyn Monroe’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, spent almost a decade and a half of her life. Well, here it is – my final Haunted Hollywood post of 2014.