A Hatfield landmark will likely face the wrecking ball.
The Biblical Theological Seminary, at 2600 Cowpath Road–straddling Hatfield’s Borough-Township line–has changed its name to
Missio Seminary and is moving to Philadelphia. It’s selling the building that has housed it since 1971.
But long before that, when its doors originally opened in 1922, that squared-off, three-story structure was known as the Hatfield Joint Consolidated School. It was built by the Hatfield Borough and Hatfield Township school boards to serve a growing post-WWI population.
Hundreds of area youths graduated from the school in the three-plus decades it was operated as a first- to 12th-grade institution. Numerous more passed through its portals between 1958, when it became E.B. Laudenslager Elementary after North Penn High opened, and 1970, when the new Hatfield Elementary School was built nearby and the Theological Seminary took up residence.
"Supposedly it was a state-of-the-art facility in its day,” said Larry Stevens, president of the
Hatfield Museum & Historical Society. "Previous to the 1920s, Hatfield Borough had its own school and Hatfield Township had a number of one-room schoolhouses. They decided to come together to build one school for both borough and township students."
"It was written that it was the finest school building between Philadelphia and Bethlehem,” said Stevens. "Apparently, it was quite impressive.”
Recent posts on
the society’s Facebook page about the school’s past and future spurred comments lamenting the loss of yet another site considered critical to the area’s evolution. A New Jersey company,
PIRHL Developers, has the site under contract of sale.
Preliminary plans show a 112-unit age-restricted apartment complex on the 4.17-acre tract, with two new structures of 56 units each—one on the borough side of the line, one on the township side—replacing the school building.
"It’s been going on maybe a year and a half that they’ve been talking about selling it,” said Stevens. "I imagine that, barring something very unforeseen, they’ll eventually move forward with the project.”
Aside from exterior work, interior upgrades and a few additions, the school remains much as it appeared in 1922.
"It wasn’t expanded too much – a wing was added onto one side of the building. And there were two buildings built, on either side, one to serve as a shop facility and a cottage on the other side for home economics classes,” Stevens said.
It is far from Hatfield’s oldest building but, Stevens says, "It still retains the character of the original. It has value in the heritage, what the building has meant to the community for so many years.”
And it still holds a special place in the hearts of those who graduated from the high school.
"We enjoyed our school years very much,” said Shirley Kulp, of Souderton, who was one of 46 in the Class of 1954. "It was a small environment, everybody knew everybody. It was not a big school."
"I’m very sorry to see it go. It’s kind of a landmark. But I guess you can’t stop progress,” said Kulp. In fact, she and Stevens and others are grateful to have had the school as long as they have, thanks to the Theological Seminary, which undertook a number of improvements to keep it habitable.
"I try to focus on the positive, the fact that the building could have been torn down after the school left,” said Stevens. "We are fortunate that the seminary was able to jump right in there, to use the building as it was, and use it almost for the last 50 years.”
And preservation is always a difficult–and expensive–undertaking.
"It would be nice if it were turned into, say, a museum and a library,” Stevens said. "But, somebody has to say, ‘OK, I’ll buy it, and we’ll turn it into a museum and library, for millions of dollars.'"
"We don’t have the resources to save buildings,” he said. "We do what we can, but mostly we record the old things that are around now, for future posterity. And the day will come when it’ll all be memories.”
