Question: When were those who said they were abused at Green Chimneys really there? What year? The program expanded to take more and more difficult kids and persons with severe mental issues - coming right out of the psychiatric ward of the mental hospital with court ordered medications. In the early years they did not take that kind of child and were not doing psychiatric cases of that severity. Originally the children were sent by their parents or by the local social service agency - but after 1989 there were court ordered placements - children who had been removed from their parents and who were wards of the court. So when were these survivors there??? After 1989 or before? In 1989 was when Green Chimney's started talking psychiatric cases straight from the psychiatric hospitals into the residential treatment center. Prior to that they did not take cases with that severity of illness. There was a clear change in the kind of program offered at that time.
A little history: Green Chimneys was founded in 1947 by the Ross Family, who purchased a 75-acre farm from the widow of NY State Senator Ward Tolbert of Pelham Manor, NY. The farm, in the Town of Patterson, Putnam County, NY, was to house a private school where children could interact with farm animals. The Green Chimneys Farm for Little Folk opened in 1948 with eleven students whose parents paid for them to be boarded at the school. From the start, the plan was to provide an environment where children and animals could live together in a farm setting. Dr. Ross, his son, Samuel ("Rollo"), and Adele MacDonald, a nurse working for Dr. Ross, established the School as a boarding school for pre-school aged children. By 1952 the mission of the school had been expanded to include children aged 2-9. The School's continued success led to a further expansion of its mission, and children aged 2-12 were admitted in 1957, with Green Chimneys providing pre-school through 6th grade classes.
By the mid-1950s the School focus was changing as it was gaining a reputation for helping children with special needs.
In the 1960s, the Green Chimneys programs expanded, and the School taught children from pre-school to grade 8. The School was now attracting children from around the United States, and also from Canada, Central America, South America, and other countries. The programs were gradually changing to accommodate children with special needs. Green Chimneys became a social services agency in 1974, allowing it to receive some government funding. The School began to provide more services for children considered "at risk". Traditional school programs were replaced by programs for children with special needs, but these new programs continued to use animals as part of the programs. The School provided 24-hour programs with special education and mental health services, limited to children from New York State. A Residential Treatment Center (RTC) was created to care for emotionally disturbed and learning disabled children referred to Green Chimneys from social services departments and public schools around the State.
Also in the 1970s, Green Chimneys added 50 nearby acres to its complex, and created the Hillside Outdoor Education Center. The Center offered programs to the general public on topics including farming and the environment. The Center now also provides day camps for developmentally and physically challenged youth, a pre-school program for children in the community, and other programs that attract area school children to Hillside's farm and education center.
In the 1980’s Green Chimneys assumed responsibility for three group homes in Westchester County, which were operated by another agency. This began the operation of the 25 bed residence in Manhattan. That residence specialized in LGBT adolescents. Then there were the Supervised Independent Living Program apartments in New York City.
In 1989 The New York State Officials under the New York State Office of Mental Health developed a 14 bed adolescent Residential treatment facility which was accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO. This was the highest level of care offered other than inpatient psychiatric treatment for children in all of New York. So referrals came to it from all over the state of New York. These were the most serious mental health cases of children handled anywhere other than in a lock down psychiatric ward in the entire state of New York.
In the nineties the program expanded to include supervised living for developmentally challenged adults in a program under the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation in Danbury CT area.
Dr. S. Bernard Ross was born in New York City on March 30, 1891. Dr. Ross retired to Marco Island, Florida in 1977, where he died on July 13, 1979 at the age of 88.
Samuel “Rollo” Ross is Dr. Ross’ son.
For additional history of the facility:
http://http://www.greenchimneys.org/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=2&Itemid=147