The reopening of Our Mother of Consolation School – devastated by a fire last year that started in the roof – has been postponed until April 2025 because of delays in permitting for the steel I-beams and columns that had to be added on the first and second floors to support the 109-year-old building on East Chestnut Hill Avenue. 

A structural engineer with Sheward Partnership, LLC, the architectural firm that created the design for OMC’s new interior, determined that the lower floors “had to be shored up,” says Bert Brong, chief estimator for Delran Builders, the general contractor based in Wyndmoor that is renovating the building.

Scheduled to reopen in January, the building was gutted in the wake of the fire. All that remained were the original masonry walls, floor joists, and a marble staircase with a wrought-iron railing and wooden handrail. 

Comparing the renovation process to a musical performance, Brong says, “In construction, certain projects have to be done in a certain order, kind of like the movements of a symphony.”

On weekdays, the sounds of a different kind of symphony – the pounding of hammers and the whirring of buzz saws – fill the three-story structure. While giving a tour of the building, Brong points out the location of what will become the cafeteria and different classrooms. The sprinkler system has been installed and most of the interior rooms have been roughed in, with drywall and vertical metal studs.

“The size of the crew varies day to day, depending on the particular projects that are underway,” says Brong, a member of both Our Mother of Consolation Parish and its building recovery committee. “The carpenters – about 15 guys – are here all the time. Other days, crews of sheet metal and HVAC guys, electricians, and plumbers are on site.”

Outside, on the rear side of the building, a section of the granite exterior wall is exposed from the ground to the top of the building as workers prepare to replace an old stairwell and install an elevator. Some of the steps of the marble staircase at the front of the building are cracked. They will be replaced with new marble from a quarry in Tennessee. The wooden handrail and wrought-iron railing will be refurbished.

Work on the wiring for the building’s IT, security and audiovisual systems is expected to start over the winter. 

While work on the building progresses, OMC students continue to learn at Chestnut Hill College, where the school relocated after the fire. Four new teachers have been hired. Principal Jessica Stack says, “Our students and faculty have been so resilient. They haven’t skipped a beat since we were displaced by the fire.”

At the college campus on Germantown Avenue, OMC occupies two floors of a wing in Clement Hall. For a school that was accustomed to using the adjacent Our Mother of Consolation Church for special Masses and other events, having to drive there “is something of a challenge,” says Stack. 

But the move has led to collaboration with Chestnut Hill College students and faculty. Last year, a biology professor and a student from the college conducted science lessons for OMC’s eighth graders in a campus lab, says Stack.

Meanwhile, OMC graduates continue supporting the school by making donations and hosting class reunions. The class of 1974 will host its 50th reunion Saturday, Oct. 5, with a tour of the school building, a Mass at the church, and a reception at the Venetian Club in Chestnut Hill.

Sandy Fox High, a member of the organizing committee for the reunion, says classmates are coming from Virginia, California and as far away as Switzerland for the event. High, who lives in Winston-Salem, NC, says she happened to be in Philadelphia shortly after the fire and drove by the school building. 

“It was so sad to see that beautiful stone building standing empty with its windows blown out,” says High, who hasn’t lived in the Philadelphia area in more than 35 years.  

High says she remembers well the marble staircase at the front of the building where many of the steps were worn in the same place “because we all followed the same path down the stairs.” 

At one time, there was a skylight on the roof of the building that has since been painted over. As part of the renovations, a stained glass window will be installed in its place. Removed from Philadelphia’s Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church before that building was demolished, the stained glass window – illuminated by cove lighting – will be visible from the bottom of the marble staircase.

Currently the window is at Beyer Studio in Germantown, which restores stained glass and maintains the Sacred Window Rescue Project. The studio removes stained glass windows from old churches and makes them available for renovation and new construction projects. 

Joseph Beyer, owner of the studio, says he hasn’t examined the window yet, but most likely it will be taken apart and rebuilt – very carefully. Beyer Studio technicians will install the window, which measures 5 feet by 9 feet, at OMC.

Brong, who has volunteered his time over the years on numerous renovation projects at the school and church, says “No one knows the school better than I do. The new school – rising out of the ashes of the fire – is going to be really special, an incredible asset to the community.”