Early history

In 1886, Charles G. Willson commissioned an architect to build a four-story brick "summer boarding house" on 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land he had purchased in the west of Rockville. During the construction of the building, Willson filed for bankruptcy, and the unfinished building was bought for $6,000 by Mary J. Colley (the owner of the Clarendon Hotel in Washington, D.C.) and her partner Charles W. Bell. Under their ownership, the building was opened as the Woodlawn Hotel in the spring of 1889. The hotel boasted electric bells, gas lighting, and 40 luxurious guest rooms. Catering to rich visitors from Washington who boarded in the hotel during the summer months, it was initially quite successful.

In 1900, town officials refused to allow the Washington & Rockville Railway to begin operating streetcars until the company fulfilled its agreement to extend tracks from Courthouse Square west to the hotel.^[3]

After a decade or so of prosperity, however, the fortunes of the Woodlawn Hotel declined as many of its semi-permanent residents moved into new houses in Rockville. In 1906, the hotel's owners were heavily in debt and were forced to sell the building and grounds at public auction.

Psychiatric hospital

The hotel was purchased by Ernest Luther Bullard (1859–1931), a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a surgeon and professor of psychiatry and neurology. Bullard renovated the building and re-opened it in 1910 as a sanatorium for the care of nervous and mental diseases, renaming it Chestnut Lodge after the 125 chestnut trees that grew on the grounds.

For many years, Bullard was the sole physician working at the Lodge, but over the next 75 years a total of three generations of the Bullard family operated the private hospital. Many nationally renowned therapists, including psychoanalytic psychiatrist Clarence Edward Bunge, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann,^[4][5] Wayne Fenton,^[6] Thomas McGlashan,^[7] Harold Searles,^[8] and Otto Allen Will Jr., worked at the hospital over the years. The hospital was the site for a series of influential studies on the long-term treatment outcome for psychiatric conditions, known as the Chestnut Lodge studies.^[7][9][10]

In the 1950s and 1960s, innovative dance therapist Marian Chace had regularly scheduled sessions with groups of patients. Judith Richardson Bunney followed her in this work. In the 1960s and 1970s, Donn B. Murphy conducted a drama group for patients. One of the core therapeutic features of Chestnut Lodge was to encourage there individuality of both patient and staff. This was found to have stimulated creativity and both groups benefitted by overcoming pressures to conform.^[11]

The psychiatric work performed at Chestnut Lodge was detailed in the 1954 book, "The Mental Hospital." The book provides insight into both the positive and negative aspects of mental health treatment at the time. Written by three psychiatrists, the work delves into many of the invisible forces influencing patient and staff interaction.^[12]

In 1980, Rafael Osheroff, a nephrologist and father of three, sued Chestnut Lodge for negligence. In his complaint, Osheroff claimed that "the staff failed to prescribe drugs and instead treated him according to the psychodynamic and social model.”^[13] The lawsuit was settled in 1987.^[14]

In 1997, the lodge was purchased by CPC Health,^[15] then was obtained by the Washington Waldorf School in 2001 when CPC Health declared bankruptcy.^[16] In December 2003, the property was conveyed to Chestnut Lodge Properties, Inc.

Conversion to condominiums

In 2008, zoning officials approved a plan to convert the main building to condominiums and build upscale housing nearby.^[17] The grove of chestnut trees and some original building façades were to be preserved.

Around 3 a.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2009, the unoccupied structure caught fire and collapsed. No one was injured. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.^[18]