Anclote Manor attracts buyer

A Clearwater neurologist with a controversial treatment for stroke hopes to turn the former psychiatric hospital into a rehab center and neurology think-tank.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 16, 2000

TARPON SPRINGS -- A Clearwater neurologist hopes to turn the old Anclote Manor psychiatric hospital into a rehabilitation center for patients who have had strokes or brain injuries.

The facility, once called "a medieval house of horrors" by a prosecutor who decried poor patient treatment, would be turned into a 130-bed rehabilitation center with two horses and a helicopter landing pad.

Dr. William Hammesfahr envisions a facility that not only treats people on an outpatient basis but also serves as a think-tank where neurology clinics and teaching sessions are held.

"This is going to be just like a Poynter Institute . . . with clinical facilities," he said. (The Poynter Institute for Media Studies owns controlling stock in Times Publishing Co., the owner of the St. Petersburg Times, and conducts classes for journalists from around the world.)

Hammesfahr said he and his colleagues were drawn to the facility because of the location and the peaceful setting. The facility is on Riverside Drive, near the Anclote River and the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's got a nice, serene atmosphere to it," he said.

The facility, on 22 acres, is owned by Health Care Property Investors Inc. of California. Hammesfahr said his offer to buy the property has been accepted, but the deal is not final yet. He would not say how much he offered to pay.

The city Planning and Zoning Board is scheduled to discuss the proposal at its meeting Monday night. Staffers have recommended approval, as long as the hospital meets certain standards with the helicopter landing pad. If the board approves it, city commissioners are scheduled to discuss the proposal during a June 27 work session and vote on it July 5.

The city's Technical Review Committee reviewed the application last week and had no problem with the hospital or the two therapy horses. Committee members were concerned about the noise from the heliport.

A planning and zoning staff report says helicopters should be allowed to land Monday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and that the landing pad should be in a remote spot. The report also said the heliport should be used only to transport patients and shouldn't become a vehicle for staff members.

Hammesfahr has developed a controversial treatment for stroke victims which, he said in a 1999 Times story, restores blood flow to damaged areas of the brain and gives stroke victims movement and strength they thought they had lost.

Some patients said Hammesfahr's mixture of heart and blood pressure drugs worked wonders. But other doctors said nobody could tell whether his treatment works because he has not subjected his theory to controlled, scientific studies. He was mentioned on Quackwatch, a Web site focusing on fraud and quackery in medicine, and his articles were turned down by well-known medical journals.

He said he plans to use that and other procedures to help patients at the new facility. Hammesfahr also would continue his practice in Clearwater.

The facility was built during the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s and was called the Sunset Hills Country Club, according to the city Planning and Zoning department. After World War II, an insurance executive turned it into a resort hotel called Upham House on the Gulf of Mexico.

He later closed it, and the facility became Anclote Manor in 1953. Later, it was called The Manors and the Northpointe Behavioral Health System, which closed in 1997. The portion of the property that once was a golf course at the country club was sold for residential development and now is called Point Alexis South.

In 1989, when the facility was known as Anclote Manor Hospital, a prosecutor described it as "a medieval house of horrors" during a court hearing about his investigation into allegations of patient mistreatment. Some patients complained of being tied to their beds for weeks and locked in their rooms for up to a year.

-- Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or at gazella@sptimes.com.

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