The Republican reports that the Mary Lyon Skilled Nursing Center in Hampden, MA is undergoing extensive renovation and getting a new name.  The owner of the facility, Wingate Healthcare, purchased the100-bed  nursing home in 2006 and owns sixteen other nursing homes in Massachusetts.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Besides a new color scheme, renovations will include a sun room that resembles a front porch where residents will be encouraged to sit and talk. There will also be an outdoor walking path enclosed with a fence. The nursing home’s lobby area will be transformed into a gallery for participants in the art therapy program.

Stout said she didn’t yet know how much the renovations will cost in total. But a recently completed septic system cost $1 million, and Wingate is financing the work. She expects the project to continue well into 2010.

“It’s like having an old house,” she said. “You don’t know what you will find.”

The facility has a staff of 100 to 120 people, including those who run activities in the evening. Some Alzheimer’s sufferers get agitated at night without something to occupy their time, Stout said.

The nursing home got its original name because the people who started it were related to Mary Lyon, founder of Mount Holyoke College, Stout said.