Class Notes

By Wade McDevitt P’28 ’30

The South Roberts Road property acquisition is historic, and one that will impact generations of Haverford School families. This moment in the School’s legacy came together with the support and dedication of many people. I’m excited to share the “behind the scenes” of this important time in Haverford School history.

It’s important to first acknowledge that the School has had a land development and acquisition plan as part of its long-term goals, and is mentioned in the most recent Strategic Plan: Lifelong Learning and Leading. While an exhaustive list may not fit here, in the last several years, the School has, among other things, updated fields, added playgrounds, built a new Middle School, and made our campus more pedestrian friendly. All of these changes are meant to enhance the experience of our community, and to position the School as one of the best schools for boys in the country.

These projects have allowed our students and broader community to thrive, but the School still found ourselves “landlocked” and in need of more space. Our acquisition strategy long consisted of seeking property that was contiguous to our current campus, mainly along Panmure Road and Railroad Avenue. While these adjacent purchases have been beneficial to the School, the amount of space needed to truly impact the programs and people at Haverford required larger acreage than could be found along our current campus.

Enter South Roberts Road. The property was listed for sale by Gemma Services, a fantastic organization that supports at-risk teenage girls. The organization listed the property in 2021 after deciding the property could no longer serve their long-term strategy. In Board of Trustees meetings and in facilities committee meetings, we would say in jest that we should just purchase the South Roberts Road property to gain the acreage we need, but were failing to find along Lancaster Avenue. Finally, we started to talk seriously about the feasibility of purchasing the land, how it could support the community, and what it would mean as we advance our mission and vision.

The property checks many boxes that were seemingly a previously unfathomable combination: close to our Lancaster Avenue campus, zoned for institutional use, and previously used as a school. Beyond this, it was immediately clear that we could expand our program offerings in ways that were previously unavailable to us given our landlocked campus.

South Roberts Road checked all those boxes. With the blessing of the Board of Trustees, Board Chair Maurice Glavin ’83, P’14 ’16 ’20 made our offer and we quickly learned that there was, understandably, significant interest from developers and other entities for the 43-acre property. It was expected and understood that we needed to “pitch” the Haverford School story to the Gemma Services team, and, if we could, eliminate the other bidders.

Our strategy was to convince the sellers to enter an exclusive discussion with the School and remove those bidders from the process. In short, we wanted to hijack their process and make them focus on the future that Haverford could have on the property. Our goal was to make an offer that would get us in the room with the Gemma decision-makers, but keep enough ‘dry powder’ in our pockets that we could upend the months-long process the Gemma Services team was envisioning.

Mr. Glavin, Head of School Tyler Casertano, and I gave a presentation to the sellers with this goal in mind. We explained how the property could give our School room to grow important programs. We shared ways generations of boys and their families could use the property, building a stronger community and ultimately creating another space where they can learn and grow together.

By the end of the meeting, the Gemma Services team recognized that our mission in serving and expanding opportunities for boys would be furthered by having this new space available to us. We walked in unsure if they’d really “hear” our pitch, and we walked out with a deal to purchase the property. They told us their final decision process would take weeks, or even months, and yet it took them just a few hours that morning to settle on The Haverford School.

While the process for the future of the property is still in its infancy, I remain excited and thrilled to be a witness to this historic moment for the School. For 138 years, The Haverford School has positioned itself to serve our community and our boys in the best possible way. I’m confident that the South Roberts Road property will serve the next 138 years of the School in a similar fashion, providing boys a space to learn,

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