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Ryan Eashoo
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New holistic healing center opens in historic Stockton Center in downtown Flint
By Liz Shaw | Flint Journal
December 04, 2009, 1:35PM
Tim Jagielo | Flint JournalCertified reiki master Kathy Bamba of Clio treats Heidi Phaneuf of Flint. "(After a Reiki session) I feel more calm and centered and peaceful, " said Phaneuf.
FLINT, Michigan — Like the long-blocked natural spring that gave the historic estate its name, healing waters have once again returned to Spring Grove.
Integrated Therapies at Spring Grove has opened at Stockton Center, 720 Ann Arbor St., one of Flint’s oldest and most famous mansions, built by the daughter of a Flint pioneer around 1872 and later the home of the original St. Joseph Hospital.
The group of holistic and alternative healers is the latest business to move into Stockton Center, which has been under renovation since 2005 by owners Freeman and Renee Greer of GAV Associates, an architectural design service.
The clinic is taking over most of the main floor of the mansion, which also houses the offices of GAV, Gould Engineering and attorney Michael Perkins, as well as a small museum on the building’s history.
The group currently includes four massage therapists and two certified Reiki masters, with an acupuncturist slated to begin sometime after the first of the year.
It’s only the start of what co-owners William Gainey and Brian Tesler envision for the holistic healing center, which has room for many more traditional and alternative services to promote physical, spiritual and mental well-being.
“Our goal is to offer clinically based therapeutic services with a spa feel,” said Gainey. “We’re building a little community here, where people can come to find all kinds of cross-connected modalities, all under one umbrella.”
View full sizeTim Jagielo | Flint JournalIntegrated Therapies at Spring Grove is the latest business to open its doors in Stockton Center, 720 Ann Arbor St.
The Victorian mansion built by Civil War hero Col. Thomas B.W. Stockton and wife Maria, daughter of pioneer fur trader Jacob Smith, once sat in the midst of their four-acre “pleasure grounds” overlooking a natural spring in a wooded wetland near the banks of the Flint River.
As the decades passed, the spring was polluted and buried beneath tons of industrial waste as the former estate between Ann Arbor and W. Second streets became home at various times to a feed and flour mill, coal storage facility, junk yard, lumber warehouse and concrete mixing plant.
In 1921, a 30-room addition was built on the house for the first St. Joseph Hospital. Later, a series of nursing homes resided there as the mansion was stripped of its original Victorian splendor and the neighborhood fell into ruins around it.
That’s all changing now with downtown Flint’s revitalization.
Today, the reception area in the Stockton front parlor is an elegant mix of antiques and contemporary comfort above the polished oak and cherry floor.
The austere, high ceilings of the old hospital wing now rear up above the cool green walls of airy treatment rooms where soft music plays.
An alcove window overlooks a giant sycamore tree above the newly reopened naturally flowing spring, where the Genesee County Land Bank Authority is transforming the former brownfield into a greenspace alongside the Grand Traverse Greenway, part of the county trail network project.
“To have this building come full circle and become a healing center again is just awesome. It’s going to be a very therapeutic setting. People usually go to Ann Arbor or Southfield for this kind of alternative therapy clinic,” said Kathy Bamba, a certified master of Reiki, an ancient Japanese relaxation and stress reduction technique which has become increasingly accepted in traditional medicine. Beaumont Hospitals, for example, offer Reiki among other integrated therapies to promote wound healing, relaxation and stress and pain reduction.
“I was looking for increased energy and a more relaxed, calm state of mind for stress relief, so when I heard they had Reiki I wanted to try it out. It’s fantastic,” said Heidi Phaneuf, a planner at the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission who’s one of the clinic’s first clients. “I hope it helps bring more healthy, environmentally conscious businesses to downtown.”
Massage therapist Jarrod Edelen said several clients have already followed him to Flint from Livingston County. The U.S. Army veteran became a massage therapist after being injured by a mortar attack while serving in Bosnia in 2001. He received a Purple Heart and now has an artificial knee.
“They’re very receptive to it. This is a beautiful house and a great place to work. To think this house has been here so long and served as a hospital once, it gives you a real appreciation for things that have stood the test of time,” said Edelen, who is trained in pre-natal and infant massage, Shiatsu, orthopedic assessment and integrated medical massage.
Among Edelen’s new clients is Flint insurance agent Judeth Perkins, who’s found visiting husband Michael’s law office is a perfect excuse for a much-needed massage after a recent shoulder replacement due to arthritis.
“I find it especially intriguing because my father and all four of his brothers were born there in the operating room right across the hall from my husband’s office,” she said.
Integrated Therapies at Spring Grove isn’t just healing people, she said: it’s part of the healing of Flint.
“We’re both lifelong Flint residents, so to see the resurgence and rebuilding of an area like this is really exciting and hopeful. We’re gonna stick around for the long haul.”
Integrated Therapies at Spring Grove
720 Ann Arbor St., Flint
(810) 239-9000
Hours: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/12/new_holistic_holistic_healing.html
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:35 pm |
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back again
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| well right on then!!!!! such a beautiful building. |
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:20 pm |
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twotap
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Another massage parlor in Flint.  |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:47 am |
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back again
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| i used to ride my old schwinn 10 speed to that area very often just to look at the architecture. there are still some old gems in that area. |
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:25 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
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This is just one more shot of adrenalin for Downtown Flint.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Tue Jan 26, 2010 10:06 am |
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