LOWER MERION \u2014 A historic building that was gifted to Lower Merion Township decades ago has a new lease on life. <\/p>\n
At its most recent meeting, Lower Merion Commissioners finalized the approval of a 20-year lease with New Horizons Senior Center to use Ashbridge House in Ashbridge Park. <\/p>\n
Over the past several years, Lower Merion has spent millions of dollars renovating the historic house so New Horizons could use it. <\/p>\n
Ernie McNeely, township manager, outlined some of the details of the lease when the issue was discussed at a committee meeting in October. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re spending $5 million, approximately, renovating Ashbridge House with the intent to have New Horizon Senior Center begin operations there,\u201d McNeely told the committee. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked with the solicitor and with New Horizons to draft the lease.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to McNeely, the lease includes an option after seven-year for either side to get out of the lease. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a $1 lease, like our leases for other senior centers that we lease to in the township,\u201d McNeely said. \u201cThey would like the lease to become effective February 1st. They\u2019re still working on the process of acquiring all the furniture, kitchen equipment, and everything they need to be set up and ready to go. But the lease has gone through discussions back and forth and has been drafted by our township solicitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Andrew Gavrin expressed his support for the township leasing the building to New Horizons. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am beyond thrilled to support this,\u201d Gavrin said. \u201cThis has been years in the making.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gavrin said the park is relatively centrally located within the township. And the house only gets used twice a year as a voting location. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is something that has been needed to be done and really grateful to our parks and recreation committee and our staff who has done a wonderful job renovating the building, making it handicap accessible,\u201d Gavrin said. \u201cThis is an incredible use. It will not overly tax the park. It will not create negative externalities. This is something that\u2019s desperately needed. It\u2019s desperately needed for the seniors in our township. It\u2019s needed for this Class 1 historic resource, and I\u2019m just thrilled to support this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, New Horizons has been operating out of the Narberth Borough Hall. In 2021, Lower Merion officials approved a Memorandum of Understanding with New Horizons that allows them to use Ashbridge House for their senior center after the building was renovated.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunded partially with federal American Rescue Program funds, the Township is nearing completion of a $4.8 million renovation and expansion of Ashbridge House designed to accommodate New Horizons Senior Center,\u201d according to the township\u2019s staff memorandum to the commissioners. \u201cThe project is scheduled to be completed in December 2025. In order to allow New Horizons to plan for their relocation, purchase furniture and equipment plus pursue certain funding a formal lease is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The property was donated to Lower Merion Township by the Ashbridge family in the 1940s. <\/p>\n
In its monthly newsletter, Lower Merion officials wrote, \u201cLower Merion Township is bringing new life to one of its oldest landmarks. The\u00a0Ashbridge House, built around\u00a01769\u00a0and located in\u00a0Ashbridge Memorial Park, is being restored and expanded to become the future home of the\u00a0New Horizons Senior Center. The project carefully balances\u00a0historic preservation\u00a0with\u00a0modern accessibility and energy efficiency. Crews are restoring the original stone structure and adding a small, compatible addition with upgraded restrooms, improved access, and sustainable mechanical systems powered by an energy-efficient heat pump.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2014 A historic building that was gifted to Lower Merion Township decades ago has a new…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":352460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,728,50,1448,2830,1311,33431,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-352459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-top-stories-mlt","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115485487635060091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}