Hallowed ground where people were born, healed and died was given Tuesday by Sisters of Mercy Health System as a legacy to Joplin’s future.

Lynn Britton, president and chief executive officer of Mercy, announced the gifts of land at the former site of St. John’s Regional Medical Center for a new elementary school, community theater, city museum and tornado memorial.

The hospital and other medical buildings on the site at 26th Street and McClelland Boulevard were destroyed by the May 22, 2011, tornado that took 161 lives.

“If we have more dreams than memories, then we are moving forward,” Britton told city and Mercy leaders at a breakfast Tuesday. “Today we are about the dreams that will make our future.”

A 12-acre parcel at the site of the former Brady Rehabilitation Center was given to the Joplin School District for a school to replace Irving and Emerson elementary schools, both of which were destroyed in the storm.

Greg Murdock, of Stained Glass Theatre, which was east of the hospital on 26th Street, said of the gift of land for a new community theater: “Thank you does not seem like a big enough word.”

The theater also was destroyed in the storm.

A parcel of land also is being given to the city for a museum if the Joplin City Council approves the offer at its meeting tonight.

Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean said the gift to the city will not only benefit Joplin, but also those who come to help in the recovery and those who will visit in the future.

“What a gift, not only for Joplin and our residents but for people who have come to Joplin to help. ... We are appreciative of the people who have come to Joplin,” she said, and also of Mercy’s more than a century of helping build health care and education in the city.

Colbert-Kean said everyone’s input will be sought in making decisions about the museum and a memorial garden.

“This is what makes Joplin everybody’s city,” she said.

After the announcement, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site that is to become the school.

Britton and Irving’s principal, Debbie Fort, told the audience that building a school on the site is a fitting tribute to Sisters of Mercy, which came to Joplin in 1885 with the original intention of starting schools.

Kalyn Connor, 11, a fifth-grader at Emerson, was one of the students who attended the groundbreaking. “I think it’s nice that St. John’s gave it to us,” she said of the land.

While the school district will have money from insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a $62 million bond issue voters approved last month to rebuild storm-ravaged schools, the theater, the city and the museum will have to find the means to fund their projects, officials said.

“I think this is wonderful for St. John’s to donate the land,” said Clair Goodwin, chairman of the Joplin Museum Complex governing board.

Questions about the museum — such as whether it would focus solely on the tornado or would also include the current museum complex in Schifferdecker Park — are still undecided and will be resolved in future discussions, city officials said.

Goodwin said all those involved may also have to form an exploratory committee to look at funding possibilities.

Allen Shirley, president of the Joplin Historical Society, which owns most of the museum collections, said drawings displayed Tuesday of the possible memorial garden and the new Mercy Hospital are significant to the city’s future.

After a year of dealing with the destruction, Tuesday marked the time to pursue those dreams that Britton spoke about, officials said.

“This is where it comes alive for the first time because you can almost reach out and touch it,” Shirley said of the museum plan. “For us at the museum, we have a window of opportunity, and we need to step up and show that Joplin wants to preserve our history. It’s time to turn the corner.”





New hospital



A NEW MERCY HOSPITAL JOPLIN is under construction at 50th and Main streets, next to Interstate 44. Plans call for the hospital to open in early 2015.