Kevin Kincer, superintendent of the Mary Haven facility at the Warren County Juvenile Court building, worked at the old building starting in 1987.
“The old building needed a lot of repairs,” he said. “It was an open facility and we had kids running away who were later charged with felony escape.”
Kincer said the old facility in the 1980s was a home for delinquent children that had a family-setting. He said about 19 boys were usually housed there at any one time and about 50 youths were sent there annually. The boys would share the five sleeping rooms on the second floor as well as go to school there, he said. This condintued until it closed in 1996 when the new facility opened on the county government campus on Justice Drive.
In the 1970s, there was a study done that determined there was a need for a home to treat juvenile delinquents locally instead of sending them to prison or other state facilities, Kincer said.
“It was more like a home-like setting,” he said. “That’s how we tried to run it. It’s a shame the county can’t keep it up.”
Kincer also said the old building was noted in the book “Haunted Ohio IV,” Staff members at the old building had reported seeing apparitions of youths in the building while it was still operating as a residential treatment center for youth.
The original Mary Haven building cost $23,000 to build, which is about the equivalent of $500,000 in today’s dollars, according to local historian John Zimkus.
He described it as the epitome of what a late 19th century orphanage looked like.
The original donation of $40,000 was made by an eccentric German-born woman, Mary Ann Klingling, who left the money in her will to establish “an Orphan Asylum” in or near Lebanon. Klingling died as a result of her carriage overturning in 1867.
However, her bequeath also stipulated the donation had to be used to assist children, he said.
The will was probated in 1887 but the county commissioners were unable to accept the money for such a purpose, which led to the Ohio General Assembly approving a special act to permit county commissions to accept funds for this purpose.
Zimkus said the name Mary Haven was first used at a county commission meeting in the 1930s to combine Klingling’s first name with the word “haven” as a safe place for children.
Zimkus said the will’s stipulation that the proceeds be used for supporting children has also hampered the county’s ability to do anything about the facility.
“You have an old building that’s fascinating to look at,” he said. “But what do you do with it? The will puts the county between a rock and a hard place.”
Since the facility was closed, the county has rented the grounds to local youth sports organizations and have leased the newer part of the building to youth counseling organizations, according to Commissioner Pat South.
While there have been other proposed uses over the years, South said the county explored renovating the building about a decade ago. At that time, it was going to cost $5 million to renovate the building and bring it up to the current building code, which also included $3 million to repair the roof, she said.
“We deemed 10 years ago that it was not worth spending taxpayer money on renovating the building,” she said. “We didn’t think the return on the taxpayer’s investment was sufficient for the amount of square footage and the amount of office space that would have been created.”
She said other issues with the old building as it not close to the county government campus, there was minimal parking, the age of the building and the possibility of asbestos in the structure.
South said in 2009, the county was given an estimate of between $200,000 and $250,000 to demolish the building
She said the county has requested an opinion from the Ohio Attorney General’s office to see if will can be the county can dispose of the property and the building.
“It’s a long, drawn out process,” South said. “But were working with the attorney general’s office to see what we can do about it.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4504 or erichter@coxohio.com.
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