Events to mark Med Center’s centennial
Published 6:00 am Thursday, July 30, 2026
Med Center Health will celebrate a century of health care in Bowling Green by unveiling a new building that promises to be the first hallmark of MCH’s second century.
A ribbon cutting for the new High Street Tower will be held at 10 a.m. Aug. 15, formally dedicating a facility that represents Med Center Health’s largest single investment in its 100-year history.
The 180,000-square foot, five-story tower will have two floors dedicated to The Medical Center’s Women and Children’s Services, which have to this point been housed in the hospital’s main building.
“The High Street Tower is going to serve a growing population,” said Corie Martin, Med Center Health’s executive director for marketing and public relations. “Having this facility is going to really help us grow along with our community and be able to assist growing families as they move into our area.”
Med Center Health is home to the state’s fourth-largest obstetrics program, delivering almost 3,000 babies a year.
Services anticipated to be offered in the High Street Tower will include labor and delivery, post- and ante-partum care, suites for caesarean services and an emergency department dedicated solely to obstetrics.
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Also, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) — the only one in the region — will be housed there.
Martin said NICU rooms are designed so that newborns needing intensive care have access to direct sunlight, an amenity also available for mothers and newborns in other rooms to maximize comfort during their stay at the tower.
“This was very beautifully thought out by everyone who designed this project,” Martin said.
Undertaken by Louisville-based Kelley Construction, construction began two years ago on the $119 million project, and the High Street Tower will connect with the hospital’s D Tower, where the emergency room is located.
Other floors will allow for future emergency department expansion and growth in surgery and endoscopy.
After the ribbon cutting, the public will be given tours of the new facility, and a Med Center Health 100th Birthday Bash will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 15 on campus at 4th Avenue and High Street, with food trucks, games and live entertainment on offer.
The Medical Center has its roots in the old City Hospital, which was dedicated on Aug. 2, 1926, in Reservoir Park and operated there until 1980, when the hospital moved to its current campus, opening as The Medical Center.
The Bowling Green hospital is the flagship facility in the Med Center Health system, which includes seven hospitals in southcentral Kentucky.
Another event scheduled to celebrate 100 years of service will be the opening at 4 p.m. Sunday of a time capsule that was placed in a cornerstone in 1952 when the City Hospital was first expanded.
The invitation-only ceremony will take place at the Reservoir Hill site where the capsule was originally sealed and encased in concrete.
Martin said the box has been extracted from its resting site and remains unopened, though a list of items in the copper box includes blueprints, a bible, pictures and more.
“We jackhammered that time capsule out of the building about four weeks ago,” Martin said. “We went from the inside of the building and X-rayed the building itself to find out exactly where it was so we wouldn’t destroy the marker on the outside where the original time capsule was placed.”
