OUR VISION

The 142-acre Blue Ridge property is a unique and magnificent property that has served as a place of healing for most of its 100-year history, first as a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients – including my grandmother and grandfather – and then as a hospital for general medicine.

The pastoral setting of the Blue Ridge property, its unparalleled history as a place of healing, and its proximity to the University of Virginia makes this property the perfect location for a long-term, multi-disciplinary, holistic treatment center for the broad spectrum of addictions and mental health disorders. I am proposing that a world-class recovery facility be built on this magnificent property, similar in scope to other top-notch facilities across the country, including:

One of Blue Ridge's many peaceful scenes.

I envision a recovery center on this property that offers residential care, with access to traditional treatment including individual therapy, group therapy, family support, and 12 step programming. I envision a recovery center on this property that offers experiential treatment modalities including but not limited to equine therapy, EMDR, art therapy, somatic experiencing, CBT, DBT, meditation, and ropes courses. I envision a treatment facility that offers intensive therapy for substance abuse, process addictions, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, co-dependency and other mental health disorders. I envision a treatment center that allows the Blue Ridge property to both return to its roots as a place of healing and move into the 21st century as a leader in treating the dominant crisis of this century, addiction.

OUR STORY

Let me share my personal story about the Blue Ridge property and explain why I am passionate about this project and why I am convinced that this land aligns with this vision.

As you may already know, the Blue Ridge property is in a small valley nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains just south of Charlottesville. I spent time in this beautiful valley as a child visiting my grandparents, who lived and worked at the Blue Ridge Sanitorium, which was located there from 1920 to 1978. My grandmother had moved to the Sanitorium in the mid 1950s, as a patient diagnosed with tuberculosis. She met and married her second husband at Blue Ridge, and after they were both released as patients, they worked at the Sanitorium and lived on the property in a house that was subdivided into four apartments.

Elsie Cash Yates standing in front of a cypress tree at the Blue Ridge Sanatorium.

Fast forward several decades to September 1986, when my husband and I were both graduate students at UVA. My grandparents still lived in Charlottesville at the time, now in an apartment in town, and not only did I appreciate our top-notch education at UVA but I also loved having the opportunity for my husband to get to know my grandparents.

Jeri Colton (left) and Steve Colton (right) at their graudation from the University of Virginia.

Fast forward again several decades to June 2017 and the birth of our first grandchild, born in Charlottesville to our oldest son Jared, a student at the Darden School (Class of 2018), and his wife Eden. Our grandson decided that he wanted his mom to spend four days in labor in the hospital before he was born. By day three, my husband and I decided that we could spend the morning away from the hospital. I had fuzzy memories of my childhood visits to someplace called the Blue Ridge Sanitorium and I suggested that we try to find it.

I had no idea at all where the Blue Ridge property might be located since I had only visited there as a child. As my husband and I searched online for an address, we learned that the Sanitorium had been converted to the Blue Ridge Hospital in the 70s and that it had closed for good in 1996. We learned that the property was currently owned by the UVA Foundation and that it was located off Highway 20 near Piedmont Community College. So we headed that way, relying on my childhood memories to direct us, eventually finding the gate of the property with the help of a policemen. We parked our car on the gravel road, and walked. After hiking up a small hill, I was fairly certain that we were now looking into the valley where I had visited my grandparents as a little girl.

After walking around the valley for a few minutes, memories started to resurface. I remembered the big cypress trees that I had played under as a little girl, I remembered the small chapel and the big mansion house, and my memory of the red brick house where my grandparents lived was starting to defog in my mind. As we walked up the rough gravel road in the middle of the property, I recognized what I thought was their house, just off the road, on the right, and down a few steps.

As fate would have it, we crossed paths that afternoon with one of the two residents on the property. We were technically trespassing so I quickly explained that I was reliving childhood memories and I was relieved when Alice responded kindly and invited us to take a walk around the property with her. We exchanged contact information as we departed.

Later that afternoon I received a text from John, the residential caretaker of the property, inviting us back for a tour of the property. Two days later we returned for a tour with John and his keys. When John unlocked the front door of the boarded-up and run-down red brick house, my heart did a summersault. This was my grandparents’ home. This was the home where the smell of green beans cooked with bacon used to greet us; where the old lady who lived across the hall used to give us Mary Jane candy; where my grandmother, who had a 7th grade education and a heart of gold, loved us as grandchildren.

As we walked the rest of the property, breathing in the spectacular surroundings, I knew that my heart was falling in love with this magnificent setting. This property that had served patients first as a sanitorium and then as a hospital spoke to me, letting me know that it had not yet finished its time as a place of healing.

Jeri and Kevin Colton (son) in front of the home where Elsie Cash Yates lived with her husband, Hunter.

When we returned home to Atlanta, I shared my vision with my husband. All I knew at this point was that the Blue Ridge property needed to 1) service the medically under-served; 2) honor my grandmother, who not only survived the dangers of tuberculosis but also survived the abuse of an alcoholic first husband; and 3) be named after my grandmother and called the “Elsie Cash Yates ….”

My husband Steve suggested that I contact our good friend Michael Gavin, who works in the healthcare industry, and who might be able to give me some direction. After a short thirty minute conversation with Michael, and relying on his professional expertise, I knew the potential mission and vision of the Blue Ridge property.

My initial thinking was that the Blue Ridge property be repurposed as a rehabilitation center to specifically meet the needs of our nation’s current opioid and heroin crisis. As I’ve educated myself about addiction treatment and recovery, I have expanded my initial thinking and I am proposing that this unique property be repurposed as a long-term, multi-disciplinary, evidence-based, holistic treatment center for the broad spectrum of addictions and mental health disorders.

Such centers exist in other parts of the country. For instance, the Refuge in Florida (www.therefuge-ahealingplace.com/), the Ranch in Tennessee (www.recoveryranch.com/), and the Meadows in Arizona (https://www.themeadows.com/) each offer world class care for those suffering from addiction and mental health disorders in a setting similar to Blue Ridge, in peaceful environments, set apart from the rest of the world. The pastoral setting of the Blue Ridge property, its unique history as a place of healing, and its proximity to the University of Virginia make this property the perfect location for a recovery center treating addiction and mental health disorders.

ELSIE CASH YATES

OUR TEAM