The Hyland Education and Training Center is a building on the campus of Mercy Hospital South. The Hyland Center is coming down soon, and taking with it a bit of KMOX history.
The building is named for Robert Hyland, who crafted KMOX into what it is today. The esteemed broadcaster was the General Manager of the station for decades, up until his death.
KMOX's Debbie Monterrey talked with Carol Ellis from Mercy Hospital about the building and its namesake.
"So the building originally opened as an alcohol rehabilitation center," Ellis said "Back in the 70s, Robert Hyland had the foresight to see that there was a need within our community."
Hyland then got together with the leadership of another rehab clinic, St. Anthony's, and decided to build a center on the Mercy campus.
The place almost looks like a lodge -- it overlooks a pond large enough to dock a boat. A bit unusual of a setting on a hospital campus.
"At that period of time, nature was very important as it still is for just calming and reducing stress," Ellis said. "And Robert Hyland had that foresight, as well as the leaders of the hospital at the time to set it up like a lodge so that when patients were coming into the building, that they felt peace and at rest."
Patients could walk around in nature, sit on a patio, watch the fish in the pond, and just generally experience a peaceful and restful environment for healing.
Now, 45 years later, the center is coming down.
"The building is beautiful, but at the time, it was built for aesthetics, more than practicality, I believe," Ellis said. "And over the years, we have seen a decrease in the needs for inpatient care for alcohol addictions. And so there really wasn't a patient care need more of that care is really being provided on the outpatient setting."
Mercy has an intensive outpatient care program already -- so patients weren't staying in the hostpital. Hyland Center became an educational building where Mercy held classes for patients and doctors and community members.
"But again, over time, the upkeep of that building, because of the way that it was built, just really outpaced its usefulness, and therefore felt like at this point in time, we needed to bring the building down," Ellis said.
As for Robert Hyland's name -- it'll go along with the building when it comes down. But that's not to say it won't be used for something else in the future.