Renovations are underway at the Grove on Patterson, where postpartum mothers and children will soon take shelter from the stigma surrounding addiction.
Restoration Housing is the nonprofit driving refurbishment at 1729 Patterson Ave. S.W., a century-old home being refitted for new life. The nonprofit’s director, Isabel Thornton, said restoration efforts should be completed early next year.
“It’s going to be called the Grove on Patterson,” Thornton said. “It’s really symbolic of the women that will be in this building, and how we hope and intend for them to feel supported and supportive of each other, and to have it feel like a community.”
The Grove will fill a gap in services prompted by the closure of Bethany Hall, which aided a similar population of at-risk women for 50 years before it was shuttered in 2022.
“We wanted to bring these services here because there’s such a stigma to substance use disorder, and a byproduct of that is shame,” Thornton said. “A byproduct of that shame is that women don’t seek help.”
Thornton and partners from Carilion Clinic, Anderson Treatment, The Twelve Foundation and Aetna Better Health of Virginia cut a ribbon to kickoff construction on Tuesday morning.
“This has been a huge community effort to get to where we are right now,” Thornton said, adding that it started with a $400,000 donation from Aetna. “Because of their investment, we’ve been able to leverage that with so much more investment from the community: from local churches, to private foundations, to donors that just want to give to this project.”
Outside the three-story brick house, a dumpster is already filled with old debris. A corner of the wrap-around porch is taped off for replacement, and workers are inside with hammers and wires.
The building is in overall good shape, but it needs some modifying for its newfound specialized purpose, Thornton said.
Once it’s ready, the house will serve 16 women and 16 infants for average stays of six months, operated by The Twelve Foundation with help from Anderson Treatment and Carilion Clinic.
Published August 13, 2024 in The Roanoke Times by Luke Weir.
