MOUNT VERNON — “If you put up your umbrella while you’re up here, you’ll land in the Kmart parking lot,” said Carole Wagner, coordinator of marketing and community relations at Knox Community Hospital.
On a windy, rainy day, Wagner and Ron Stull, director of building services at KCH, led visitors to the hospital’s seventh floor, a partial story atop the six-story building, where a door leads to the open rooftop. At the hospital, the seventh story is referred to as “the penthouse,” although it’s actually the mechanical room.
“There are two rules about being up here,” said Stull. “Rule No. 1: No jumping. Rule No. 2: See Rule No. 1. And if your umbrella starts to blow away, let go of it.”
Thanks to the building’s height and its placement on a hillside, as well as the elevation of Mount Vernon’s hilly east side, the KCH roof offers an impressive view in all directions.
Wagner pointed out the oxydized-green copper domes of the Knox County Courthouse and the Memorial Building downtown. Farther away, the old PPG smokestack looms; below KCH, across Yauger Road, the Country Club Retirement Campus buildings can be seen behind the trees.
Making a circular tour around the roof, visitors can look down on the roofs of the Mount Vernon Baptist Temple, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Kmart and the KCH Pavilion. To the south, the trees in one of the area’s last remaining woods stand tall.
Directly east, and not far away, stands the blue water tower, on eye level with the roof. Far away in the opposite direction is Mount Vernon’s other water tower.
“I remember when they built it,” said Stull of the nearby tower. “It was incredible. Guys hung off the side of the tower, just hanging off a rope and welding. It was something to see.”
He also remembers when the tower was painted, and how wind drift splattered paint on cars in the hospital parking lot.
The very top of the long hill that Coshocton Road traverses is on eye level with the KCH rooftop. The hill reaches its highest point at the intersection of Upper Gilchrist and Coshocton roads, marked by the traffic light.
“When you look that way,” said Stull, pointing east, “you can see you’re coming up the elevation and then you’re not going any higher. It tops at the light.”
In the other direction, Stull pointed out the Seventh-day Adventist Academy and the Knox County Fairgrounds, which is on its own tall hill.
“There you can see the back straightaway of the racetrack,” he said.
From the racetrack, KCH looms tall in the distance.
In 1978, Mercy Hospital and Martin Memorial Hospital merged and became Knox Community Hospital. The KCH building was constructed in 1982 and dedicated in 1983. The first patient arrived in August of that year.
