The Woodlands' 50th Anniversary Community
BY VANESSA HOLT
Editor's note: This story is part of a monthly series that Community Impact will run through the 50th anniversary of The Woodlands in October 2024 highlighting the community.
Community hospital launched decades of regional health care
Along with the development of The Woodlands in 1974, part of George Mitchell’s vision for the community included recognizing the need for a hospital to serve the growing population. While The Woodlands is now home to multiple regional hospital groups—Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann, St. Luke’s, Texas Children’s and MD Anderson—as well as many other primary, urgent, specialty and emergency care facilities, the rst hospital opening took place in 1985, just over a decade after the community opened. The original community hospital became Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Cen- ter, which in 2024 is completing several projects to expand its parking garage by 1,000 spaces and add a sixth medical oce building, said Justin Kend- rick, senior vice president and CEO of Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center. “It was master-planned to be a 96-bed hospital,” Kendrick said. “Now, we sit at 457 with another 100 beds of shell capacity.” The backstory Founding members of the community, such as Roger Galatas, who was chair of the hospital board in its early years, were instrumental in raising awareness of the hospital, Kendrick said. This included moving the hub for The Woodlands Express park and ride service to the hospital parking lot at one point to make the public more aware of its location, Kendrick said. The hospital held its grand opening on Jan. 19, 1985, and it became part of the Memorial Health System in 1991, he said. The original hospital was located where the current administrative oces are, with the oces marking the labor and delivery area, Kendrick said. As the community grew, needs for other services grew as well, with Memorial Hermann receiving a Level 2 trauma designation in 2014, he said. The hospital has also continued to grow physically, with work on its South Tower being
The Woodlands Community Hospital opened in 1985.
PHOTOS COURTESY HOWARD HUGHES
Groundbreaking for The Woodlands Community Hospital took place in 1983.
A tabletop model in 1982 shows the plan for the original community hospital.
Openings in The Woodlands 1985 The Woodlands Community Hospital opens 2003 St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital opens 2017 Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital opens Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands opens 2019 MD Anderson care center opens
completed in 2022 and an additional medical oce tower slated to open in January 2025. What they’re saying “The intent ... was always to have a well- rounded, sustainable community, ... but in order to do [that], you’ve got to be healthy as well,” said Jim Carman, president of the Howard Hughes Houston region. “Babies are being born; people get sick. And certainly the intent was to meet as much as we could of those demands.”
SOURCES: HOWARD HUGHES, MEMORIAL HERMANN THE WOODLANDS MEDICAL CENTERCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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