Upper Darby School District hires architects to revamp Delaware County Memorial Hospital site

After purchasing the site of the now-shuttered Delaware County Memorial Hospital this summer, Upper Darby School District is taking the next step in determining what to do with the property.

During a Jan. 13 meeting, the school board approved an agreement to hire Washington, D.C.-based architectural and engineering firm Perkins Eastman. That firm will first help the school district figure out “what is possible at the location,” and then eventually make it a reality, Superintendent Dr. Daniel McGarry told Fideri News Network.

Some possibilities the district is considering include building an elementary school on the site or building a science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) high school there. Or the district could use the site as a “temporary swing space large enough that we could swing schools over there and try to renovate all of our facilities,” McGarry said.

The superintendent also said the school district selected Perkins Eastman after interviewing several firms and narrowing its options down to two, then selecting the winner following more “in-depth” interviews.

To assess its options for the hospital property, Upper Darby School District will now distribute surveys to collect community feedback and form a committee consisting of teachers, students, administrators and other stakeholders. “The process includes both a quick review of, ‘can we do anything with the current space, or will it require a complete teardown?’ — and then what we do with the space moving forward,” McGarry said.

In August, the school district closed on a deal with Prospect Medical Holdings to purchase the Drexel Hill property for $600,000. The nearly 8-acre lot houses the former Delaware County Memorial Hospital, which closed in 2022, plus a medical office building and a parking garage. Prospect, a California-based hedge fund and the parent company of Crozer Health System, filed for bankruptcy in January 2025 and previously asked the court to allow it to abandon the Delaware County Memorial Hospital site.

Two other Crozer Health System hospitals, Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Ridley, shut their doors in spring 2025.

McGarry said the school district is “extremely excited” about the prospects for its newly acquired property, which is located a short distance from Upper Darby High School. But he added: “We need to be cautious, too, because obviously, costs are what they are.”