Old Hatboro-Horsham School Cleared For Sale

HATBORO / HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA ?Despite petitions and protests, the sale of the former Limekiln-Simmons School property can proceed.

At the August Hatboro-Horsham School Board meeting, Schools Superintendent Scott Eveslage provided an update on the status of the property, stating that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a petition to overturn the approval of the property?s sale, allowing the school district to proceed with the sale under the Public School Code.

Residents Peggy and John Ambler have led the charge that the district should honor the original wishes by finding a use for it within the district.

The 10.5-acre property at 1125 Limekiln Pike was donated to the school district by Dorothea Simmons in 1933 and had been used as a school and for other district uses. A sale agreement was signed in 2016 for $593,140.

A petition drive was launched opposing the sale.

Eveslage has stated that litigation has gone through the Montgomery County Court, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court denial to hear the case, and a return to county court and a second appeal in Commonwealth Court.

Eveslage said the district intends to honor the agreement of sale and act in the best interest of its taxpayers by selling the property for $593,000.

Eveslage also said the district was not interested in, or capable of, funding any post-secondary educational programs.

He also said it would be "fiscally irresponsible and unfeasible" for the district to consider it.

In 1932, Prospectville Grammar, now known as Limekiln Simmons School opened on Limekiln Pike, Horsham Township, on land donated by Simmons. The school was added onto in the 1950s and became Simmons elementary. After Simmons elementary was moved to Babylon Rd. in 1992, Limekiln-Simmons served a variety of educational functions both for the District and privately such as a Montessori school.

The building was closed in 2011.