Skinner Organ Co.
Opus 599, 1926

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.

Identified through information adapted from E. M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List, by Sand Lawn and Allen Kinzey (Organ Historical Society, 1997), and included here through the kind permission of Sand Lawn:
With player attachment; moved to Methodist Church, Charleston, Michigan; later sold to James E. Leinonen, Detroit, Michigan.