Today when we think of our rival school, The Episcopal Academy, we think of concrete and glass structures in an expansive rural landscape, surrounded by ample parking.
But that has not always been the case for EA. In 2008, EA had the opportunity to move its Merion Station campus to its current location in Newtown Square. Fifteen years later, The Haverford School is now presented with an eerily similar opportunity.
The Episcopal Academy has a long and storied history with its location. It was founded in 1785, a full 99 years before The Haverford School, by Second and Market Streets in Philadelphia. The school opened a new building near Independence Hall two years later.
The school moved four more times within the city; in 1790 to Third and Pear, 1816 to Locust Street, 1847 to Ninth and Market, and 1850 to Juniper and Locust. Because of the rising price of land in Philadelphia, it then made its most impactful move to date. It relocated from the city to the suburb of Merion Station in 1921.
This shift in location marked a pivotal period in Episcopal’s history, as it abandoned all of its buildings and history in Center City. It moved into a former mansion called “Yorklynne” where it held classes for half a century. Years after that, they bought a plot in Devon in 1973 for its lower school.
In 2008, all divisions of Episcopal Academy relocated to one property in Newtown Square.
This shift in location marked a pivotal period in Episcopal’s history, as it abandoned all of its buildings and history in Center City.
Their recent move, combined with our recent addition of a new property on South Roberts Road, raises a tempting question among both students and faculty at Haverford.
Should we also move our campus?
Richard Brown, CEO of a local Havertown company Shaffer Desouza-Brown can help answer this question.
Shaffer Desouza-Brown manufactures sound panels and specializes in sound remediation. In addition to working at such places as the Kimmel Center, the Academy of Music, and the NFL Films building, they also worked on Episcopal Academy’s new campus. More specifically, they installed soundproofing in their indoor pool, tennis courts, and lunch room.
Brown thinks EA’s Newtown Square campus is far superior to the old one in Merion Station, at least from a soundproofing perspective.
Regarding their modern acoustics in the pool and tennis courts especially, Brown said, “They have recognized the need for comfort and noise.”
Brown thinks Haverford has a nice campus, and the school should instead focus on upgrading and improving its current physical plant, as the school has with its construction of the new Middle School in 2020.
Head of Middle School Dr. Jay Greytok has spent almost all of his career on campus, graduating in 1983 and returning just five years later to teach.
Dr. Greytok said that the Episcopal Academy move came with all positive news, as EA had been looking to expand for a long time, and uniting all of their campuses was the perfect opportunity. He said Haverford and Episcopal used to have transit access in common. Many students and faculty at The Haverford School use SEPTA to get to and from school every day. This access would be severely lacking if we moved to Roberts Road.
Although Dr. Greytok did mention that the Norristown High Speed Line is only about a half-mile away from our Roberts Road property, he also made note that there are no sidewalks from the station to the property. Additionally, the NHSL only runs to 69th Street Transportation Center, not to Center City, where many who ride SEPTA to school board. This would be just one of the significant drawbacks to moving the school to another campus.
In addition to there being a heavy upfront cost to relocating, something shown by Episcopal in 2007, Haverford would need to build much more new infrastructure around the new property.
In addition to there being a heavy upfront cost to relocating, something shown by Episcopal in 2007, Haverford would need to build much more new infrastructure around the new property.
Furthermore, the new space gained from moving away from Haverford’s current location may not be worth it. In comparison to EA’s new property of around 120 acres, our new one is about a third of that size, at only 42 acres. Moving from our current site of 30 acres is just not worth it.
Although Dr. Greytok said that Episcopal is now stronger after their move, we at The Haverford School do not face the same issues that EA did. We are already on one connected campus, and we have much more modern infrastructure compared to EA’s Merion property.
So will The Haverford School follow in our rival’s footsteps and move our campus? Only time will tell.
