A little less than a year from now, the classrooms of St. Joseph School on Cabbage Hill will once again be alive with children learning their ABCs.
Starting next fall, St. Joseph will debut as the new home for Wonder Academy, Water Street Mission’s faith-based early childhood education program. In the intervening months, the building is being extensively renovated and refurbished.
The first phase, involving selective interior demolition and removal of obsolete infrastructure, began a few weeks ago. It will continue into next year, followed by about six months of construction.
Wonder Academy serves about 50 children ages 3 to 5. Tuition is based on income and many families pay “very little, if anything,” Water Street Marketing Director Matt Clement said. Funding comes from donations, a significant portion from businesses using Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.
Wonder Academy currently operates in space leased from New Creation United Methodist Church, at 10 W. Farnum St. Having a dedicated space of its own will provide the program with flexibility and increased visibility to the community, Clement said.
Water Street bought 47 S. Mulberry St. from the Diocese of Harrisburg in November 2023, paying $1.5 million. The diocese had used it as a school for more than 50 years, then as a school for at-risk youth, operated by Catholic Charities. The building was shuttered when the latter was relocated in 2022.
The main school building is three stories, totaling a little under 20,000 square feet. Wonder Academy will occupy the first two floors, while the third floor will be converted into offices. Water Street plans to rent those, providing an income stream.
For the past couple of years, while St. Joseph was vacant, neighbors used the site for parking. Going forward, that won’t be an option, at least when the building is open during the week, Clement said: There will only be around two dozen parking spaces and they’ll be needed for use by teachers, office staff and so on.
Besides Wonder Academy, the building will provide a venue for evening events and other programming. Possibilities include fitness classes, tutoring, senior activities and so on, Clement said. Those plans are a work in progress, and Water Street is seeking input from the surrounding neighborhood on what offerings it would like to see. (It has partnered with Tenfold’s SoWe organization on outreach.)
Might the move allow Wonder Academy to expand? Possibly later on, but for now the plan is to maintain enrollment as-is, Clement said.
Renovations will entail some restructuring of the existing classrooms, adding bathrooms and overhauling the building’s systems: plumbing, HVAC and so on. Things should wrap up by the start of the 2025-26 school year. The general contractor is Warfel Construction.
The budget for the initial phase, primarily demolition, is $500,000, Clement said. There is no final budget as yet: That will be settled next year, when plans are finalized and any issues uncovered during demolition can be taken into account. The necessary funding is being raised privately, Clement said.
The St. Joseph renovation is one of two nonprofit revitalization projects at the intersection of Mulberry, Vine and Strawberry streets. At the former Strawberry Hill restaurant complex, Chestnut Housing is planning Dinah’s Hill Apartments, with 11 affordable units, plus office and community space.
(Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct the name of the tax credit that supports Wonder Academy programs, and to correct that the program for at-risk youth at St. Joseph School was relocated, not closed.)
