Alum of former St. Basil's Academy gather to say goodbye before demolition

JENKINTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Alumni of an all-girls Ukrainian-Catholic school are remembering their alma mater before the building is demolished.

St. Basil's Academy in Jenkintown will be knocked down next week. The private school was open for 90 years and helped educate thousands of Philadelphia-area girls.

"My daughter went here so I was an alum, a teacher, and a parent so this is triply hard for me because I lived and breathed this school," said Terry Dillinger, who joined a group from the school community who gathered in front of the building Saturday.

The school closed after the 2020-2021 school year. The building has stood empty since.

"This was a beautiful place with 90 years of memories. We have educated the hearts and minds of thousands of young women throughout the Philadelphia area and it's just sad to know that this is the end, the actual end," said Hollie Havens, president of the alumni association.

Toll Brothers recently bought the property for $9.5 million and is getting ready to build a 55 and older community on the land.

That's why generations of alumni came back to the building to say goodbye and reminisce on the good times.

"Everybody was equal and we were all unified. There was not this group against that group. You never had to put on. You could totally be yourself whether, it was weird, a jock, somebody who was academically-minded," said Kimberly Szypula, class of 1992.

The building is scheduled to be demolished on Monday, but while the school may no longer physically be here, the alum says its spirit will live on.

"I keep telling everyone we're more than a building. It is hard to say goodbye to the bricks and mortar, it's hard to see it this way but our memories and the friendships we created are more important that what's behind us," said Havens.