Construction is almost finished, and the new building will be up and running for the start of school next year. A lot of anticipation has been building towards the completion of the Prep’s new school building – Adelphia Memorial Hall – as it slowly rose from the wreckage of Peyton over the course of this year. Throughout the year, students and teachers have watched the hulking shape progress from a pile of rocks to a metal skeleton to its now almost-completed form. Everyone has put up with the constricted traffic and cramped quarters its construction has caused with the hope that the new Adelphia will be worth it. So was it?

Named in homage to the original Adelphia, which is to be taken down next year, new Adelphia is bigger, brighter, and stronger than its predecessor Peyton. And, besides the interior, its construction is almost finished. Upon completion, Adelphia Memorial Hall will include a new cafeteria, library, and chapel, and will contain the entire math and science departments along with their corresponding offices. The building has six floors, each with that amazing view of the water that the school’s been missing this year. The new sixth floor commons area – the Great Room – will capitalize on this especially, with its huge glass walls to give observers a widescreen experience. And what a relief all of this extra space will be as well, finally returning to prep-goers that sorely missed freedom to stretch out.

Now that much of the main building has been completed, students may have noticed the lean-to looking shape being constructed adjacent, which will ultimately become the new chapel – Our Lady of Montserrat. Named for the chapel at which St. Ignatius Loyola had his conversion, the chapel is still in its first stages, but it’s scheduled to be completed over the summer in August – the main hall will be completed officially a bit earlier, in July. Both constructions will be ready for classes on the first day of school this September.