The Haven

In 1926, Detroit industrialist Fred Shinnick and his wife, Lillian, built a palatial house on an agrarian landscape in Avon Township, Michigan (now Rochester Hills). Called The Haven, the residence was a country home away from city life for the Shinnicks and their four children. But by 1932, The Haven home was turned into a private hospital for patients struggling with alcohol and drug dependency, and by 1934 became The Haven Sanitarium and also treated patients diagnosed with severe depression and other serious mental health issues. From 1932 to 1968, The Haven was one of the most respected mental health hospitals in the United States.

The Haven Estate: 1927-1932

Originally built as a country estate for Detroit industrialist Fred M. Shinnick and his wife, Lillian, The Haven stood along Walton Boulevard (known then as Perry Road) on the former Manwaring farm. In 1927, the Shinnick family moved into the opulent English Tudor Revival-style home with their four children, Donna, John Graham, Retta, and Fred Jr. The 33,000 square-foot residence included 40 rooms, twelve baths, four fireplaces, and a glass-enclosed atrium.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1877, Fred Shinnick began working for Briggs Manufacturing Co. in Hamtramck around 1910. He eventually became secretary and treasurer at Briggs, which then was the world’s largest supplier of automobile bodies and other car parts. Later he worked for Parsons Manufacturing, which made automobile hinges and locks, and Central Iron Foundry from which he retired in 1945. Fred also served the local community as vice president of the Avon Township Library. In 1925, he donated a house he owned at 134 W. Fifth Street (now University Drive) to the Women’s Club of Rochester for use as a community house.

Lillian Graham Shinnick was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1883. She designed The Haven estate’s landscaping in an English style, importing a variety of flowers and plants from overseas, including ewes, lilies, and irises. Lillian was a member of several area garden clubs.

The Haven Sanitarium: 1932-1968

In 1932, the Shinnicks converted their country residence into The Haven Sanitarium, a private hospital treating patients with alcohol and drug dependency, depression, and other illnesses. Speculative reasons for converting the home into a mental health facility range from the stock market crash in 1929 and the financial stress it later took to support a large estate, to the family’s personal experience with a family friend’s mental breakdown in 1931 and the growing need across the country for mental health care in the wake of the Great Depression. Both Fred and Lillian personally managed the new facility, which quickly gained a world-wide reputation for its amenities and treatments for mental illness.

One of the most notable doctors to work at The Haven Sanitarium was Dr. Leo Bartemeier, a world-renowned psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who was the hospital’s director of professional staff from 1942 to 1954. Under his direction, The Haven Sanitarium became a leading psychiatric hospital not only for patients across the country, but for medical students from around the world who came to the sanitarium to receive training from Dr. Bartemeier. 

The Haven Closes: 1968

The introduction of prescription medication in the 1950s to treat depression caused a sharp decline in hospitalized patients around the world. Fewer patients coupled with many changes to fire and safety regulations ultimately led to the closure and sale of The Haven hospital in 1968. Despite having a new owner, the property deteriorated due to a lack of care and vandalism.

The building caught fire on the night of November 2, 1973. Despite the Rochester Fire Department’s efforts to fight the blaze, the building was a total loss. It is still questionable whether the fire’s cause was accidental or intentional.

By 1977, new owners platted the property into 142 home sites for a new subdivision named Grosse Pines. The subdivision's first home models opened in June 1978.

Final Note

It has long been rumored that a few Hollywood celebrities and notable Detroit figures of the day sought treatment for dependency and depression at The Haven. However, The Haven’s doctors, nurses, and staff held to a strict code of confidentiality about the identities of their patients. To this day, the rumors cannot be verified with recorded evidence.

Books

Clark, Alvin, A History of Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric, and General Hospital Complex at Eloise, Michigan: 1832-1982, Wayne County General Hospital Anniversary Committee, January 1, 1982.

Holtzman, Dr. Ellen, A Home Away from Home, March 2012, Vol. 43, No. 3, Page 24.

Luxenberg, Steve, Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret, 2009.

Deutsch, Albert, The Mentally Ill in America: A History of Their Care and Treatment from Colonial Times, Columbia University Press, 1946.

LoCicero, T.V., Murder in the Synagogue, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1970.

Bauer, Louis H., editor, Seventy-Five Years of Medical Progress: 1878-1953, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 1954.

Atlee L. Stroup and Ronald W. Manderscheid, “The Development of the State Mental Hospital System in the United States: 1840–1980,” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 78, No. 1 (March 1988), pp. 58-69.

Newspapers

"Local & Otherwise", The Rochester Era, May 1, 1924, page 5.

 “State News in Brief,” Pickney Dispatch, June 24, 1925, page 2.

“James R. Blackwood Obituary,” The Rochester Era, October 17, 1930, page 4.

“Cramer Smith’s Suicide Shocks City Saturday,” The Pontiac Daily Press, June 8, 1931.

“Cramer Smith Banker Suicide,” The Rochester Era, June 12, 1931, page 1.

“Locals,” The Rochester Era, September 23, 1931, page, 5.

“Awarded Judgement Against Sanitarium,” The Rochester Era, March 12, 1937, page 1.

“Patient Escapes from The Haven,” The Rochester Era, March 25, 1938.

“’The Okinawan Coming Thursday’: Picture Made by Specialist in Psychiatry,” The Rochester Era, Jan. 16, 1947, page 1.

The Rochester Era, Aug. 7, 1947, pg. 2

Woman’s Club is Entertained Friday with Talk, Music, The Rochester Era, March 20, 1947, page 2.

“Children Carol at the Haven,” The Rochester Era, Jan. 1, 1948, page 1.

“Psychiatrists for Schools Urged,” The Courier-Journal, April 7, 1948, page 13.

“Rochester Artist has Painting in Detroit Exhibition,” The Rochester Era, June 16, 1948, page 7.

“Board Chairman at Haven San., Honored Abroad,” The Rochester Era, October 7, 1948, page 8.

“Rochester Counsels Its Children,” Petoskey News-Review, February 26, 1949, page 9.

“Famous Doctor to Speak in York,” The Gazette and Daily (Pennsylvania), March 8, 1952, page 1.

“Honoring a Detroit Psychiatrist,” The Detroit Times, March 13, 1952, page C-3.

“Master Plan Proposed,” by Helen Parks, The Rochester Eccentric, Sept. 27, 1973

Helen Parks, “Arson Believed in Haven Blaze,” The Rochester Eccentric, Nov. 8, 1973, pages 1 & 3

“Haven Zoning Dispute Ends,” The Rochester Eccentric, Dec. 13, 1973, pg. 12

Helen Parks, “Avon on Deadline to Settle Haven,” The Rochester Eccentric, Dec. 20, 1973, pages 1 & 3.

“Reopening Conference at School Open to the Parents,” The Rochester Era, September 2, 1949, page 1.

“Destruction Complete; Haven End a Sad Blaze,” The Rochester Clarion, November 8, 1973, page 1.

“Arson Believed in Haven Blaze,” The Rochester Eccentric, November 8, 1973, pages 1 & 3.

“Haven Development Plan is Okayed,” The Rochester Clarion, January 13, 1977, page 1.

Weddell,Dorothy, “Even the Lots are Outlandish, Detroit Free Press, December 17, 1977, page 15.

“He Had a Love for Mankind,” Detroit Free Press, October 13, 1982, page 51.

Wogan, J.B., “After the Asylum: How America’s Trying to Fix Its Broken Mental Health System,” November 15, 2015. https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-mental-health-boarding.html.

Census:

U.S. Census, 1910, ancestry.com

U.S. Census, 1920, ancestry.com

U.S. Census, 1930, ancestry.com

U.S. Census, 1940, ancestry.com

Additional Resources:

Haven Brochure, c. 1930s, Rod & Sue Wilson Collection.

Paulen v. Shinnick, Docket Nos. 43, 44, Calendar Nos. 40,703, 40,704. Supreme Court of Michigan, December 1939.

Interviews

Bo Hall, granddaughter of Fred & Lillian Shinnick and daughter of Graham Shinnick. May 21, 2013.

Dorothy Ferguson, November 1, 2013. Conducted by Tiffany Dziurman.