1920: A Move to the "Country"

Penn Charter was originally a downtown urban school, but Mott Jones wanted a larger space, outside the city, where students could breath in fresh air and test themselves in athletic contests on fields of green. The search for a campus that could accommodate the academic and athletic needs of an ever-growing student body—from a broader and broader radius stretching west and north of Philadelphia and even into New Jersey—took more than 50 years. The school's relocation to School House Lane in 1920 was worth the wait. We have a green, wide-open 47-acre campus that is still in the city. That's appealing to a lot of different kinds of families who come here from around the region and feel comfortable.