Dr. Blackman’s Estate – The History

Kingwood Asylum

Since 1892, the Foster Lumber Company has owned a track of land that was later developed into the community presently known as Kingwood, Texas. On December 28, 1967 the land was sold by the Foster’s to a joint venture company between the historic King Ranch of south Texas and the Friendswood Development Company; which is a developer of master-planned communities in the Greater Houston area.

Prior to the sell of the Foster’s land, a reservoir was created in 1953 on the San Jacinto River when the City of Houston built a dam to create a reservoir to replace Sheldon Lake, then the primary source of water for the city. This reservoir is now referred to as Lake Houston.

Kingwood, founded in 1969, began development on the North West side of Lake Houston 16-years after the reservoir was completed. The name is derived from the King Ranch as well as from the Friendswood Development Company.

In fact, Fosters Mill Village and Foster Elementery School in Kingwood is an omage to the Foster’s for owning the land that was sold to the joint venture and the family’s legacy.

Another track of land on the Southeast edge of the Foster’s property had an old family home that was built in the early 1940’s on a ridge. A local Houstonian, Dr. Phillip Blackman, who later worked at the Baylor University College of Medicine, owned the land and used the home as his weekend retreat house. When Lake Houston reservoir began to fill, it unexpectedly covered most of the land in front of the home and the only access road crossing over Caney Creek to the estate. After a settlement with the insurance company for the loss of land due to flooding, it is said that Dr. Blackman negotiated with the Fosters an easement (right-of-way passage) on the southern most edge of the Foster’s property line to his house.

Later in 1967, When the Fosters sold the land to the Joint venture; there was no mention of this easement in the contract. The home was still standing unbeknownst by anyone, until two-years later when the development company started clearing the land. Dr. Blackman claimed that he and the Fosters went back for years and that the easement was to be upheld if the land was ever sold.

Twenty-four years earlier, the M. D. Anderson Foundation invited Baylor University College of Medicine to join the newly formed Texas Medical Center. The College opened in Houston on July 12, 1943, in a converted Sears, Roebuck & Co. building. Four years later, Baylor moved into its present location in The Roy and Lillie Cullen Building. It was the first building actually completed in the new Texas Medical Center.

Baylor’s rise in prominence began in the 1950’s when Dr. Blackman’s innovative surgical techniques garnered international attention. Although, his real passion in medicine was trying to understand mental health due to the loss of his mother from mental illness, the medical center did not want any of the negative stigmas associated with long-term inpatient-care for the mentally insane.

Most medical facilities during the 1950’s favored patients with conditions that could be treated, as the patients conditions improved, they were discharged. These type success stories statistically helped with the prestige of Universities and Hospitals alike. Unfortunately, at that time, most patients suffering from severe mental illness would be checked into a hospital only to die years later from self-injury or age; physicians commonly referred to most patients with severe mental illness as terminal. This reproach was not the type of attention the medical center was looking for.

During this time, state institutions known as asylums were established for mental patients that effectively had no place to go. That is why “Asylum” was the word used to describe the facilities for the mentally insane. The word itself means refuge, or a shelter from danger or hardship. Today, the word has a negative connotation because early asylums were little more than repositories for the mentally ill; removing them from mainstream society in the same manner as a jail would for criminals. Conditions were often extremely poor and serious treatment was not yet an option. Then, there was minimal understanding of mental health issues and treatment methods were in the early stages of development.

After several years of trying to get Baylor to open a ward for mental patients and multiple attempts to get a hearing with the medical center for backing, Dr. Blackman realized that his dream of treating and curing the mentally ill would not come to fruition. Frustrated with the situation, Dr. Blackman began to develop plans to open a small asylum dedicated to providing quality patient care with unrelenting attention to clinical excellence, patient safety and an unparalleled passion and commitment to assure the very best healthcare for those he served. Funding for this project would be immense, and the location would need to be perfect.

While working on the plans one Saturday at his weekend home, he realized that both of these outstanding problems could be solved with one simple answer. The utilization of his beautiful isolated weekend estate would provide the perfect setting for a peaceful retreat style asylum, and would eliminate the cost of building. Attempting to satisfy the memory of his poorly treated mother, Dr. Blackman wanted to create an environment that would be conducive to improving the mentally ill’s behavior; not the state’s 1850 style version through the Kirkbride plan.

On October 31, 1957 Dr. Blackman began secretly treating a handful of mentally ill patients in his weekend home using a small staff of student nurses needing additional hours and his family members. Due to its location, the home later became referred to as “The Woods Asylum”. Here, Dr. Blackman allowed the patients to roam the wooded areas surrounding the home. He felt that the serenity of the forest could relieve the patients of their illness. Eventually, he elected several well-behaved yet severely mentally ill patients for a study proving that people with severe mental illness could be an active part in society. They would help with some of the daily chores around the Asylum including retrieving water from the well, landscaping, gardening, and waste management. read more