Haverford purchasing Brookline School, plans demolition
HAVERFORD >> The board of commissioners has begun the process to take ownership of the former Brookline School on Earlington Road from the Haverford Township School District.
Commissioners voted
8-1 Monday evening to begin the process of purchasing the property for $1. The building, which was built in
1913, has not been used as a public school for a number of years. It presently houses Family and Support Services, which provides a kindergarten enrichment program for children who attend the townships’ half day kindergarten as well as daycare and morning- and afterschool care center for children. A second tenant of the building is Surrey Services for Seniors.
Commissioner William Wechsler said both Family Support Services and Surrey have been aware for some time that Brookline School would no longer be available past the end of this school year. Both groups have been looking for space in the township. Wechsler said one option discussed was to place the Surrey Center in the Ernest J. Quatrani Building behind former township building on Darby Road.
“We want to keep that property (Brookline) as either open space or some other use; we are considering a number of options,” said Wechsler. “The school district doesn’t have a need for it. That building became obsolete in their mind.”
Wechsler, the president of the board in 2018, said township engineers had also inspected the building, and found it significantly deteriorated and would not be worth the cost of repairs to return it to usable space. He said officials wanted to keep the property from possibly falling into the hand of a developer or another institution.
Wechsler said the township was considering moving the library there or a creating a community center such as a gym or just open space. With the purchase, the township will prepare remediation of the structure with the stated goal of tearing the building down at the end of the school year in June.
Funds have been budgeted to renovate the existing library building on Mill Road but that project has not started and could conceivably be diverted to a new building on Earlington Road.
In a post to residents, Eighth Ward Commissioner Gerry Hart, in whose district the school resides, noted that the township had pledged to spend over $6 million on renovation of the library at its current location but that site will continue to have only 16 parking spaces.
“A move to Brookline would involve a significant opportunity for more parking, but with that will come a significant increase in the cost for building a new library,” Hart said. “There will be ample opportunity for community input in any decision that is to be made about the library.”
“We will be having property committee meeting and are open to input,” said Wechsler. “We’re more than willing to talk to the public and we are going to be sensitive to the residents there. We’re going to have to see what the general consensus is.”
Wechsler said decisions would be made through public meetings similar to development of the new township and police station.
A second vote will take place at the Feb. 11 commissioners meeting to finalize the purchase.