CatholicPhilly.com’s staff photographer, Sarah Webb, toured the seminary’s campus recently for an overview of the buildings and ground. This gallery presents her photos, plus some from the archdiocesan archives, where noted. Click on a thumbnail to open the larger image.
A eucharistic procession advances along the front of the upper side building at St. Charles Seminary in this undated photo. (Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center)
This undated photo shows the seminary’s barracks-style seminarian residence in the College Division as it appeared after the division opened in 1928. Interior walls to accommodate small, individual rooms for seminarians were added in 1952. (Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center)
An area of the vacant former convent at St. Charles Seminary, which will be renovated to accommodate the College Division seminarians.
A former convent for sisters working at the seminary, long vacant, will be renovated to accommodate the College Division in a consolidated St. Charles Seminary campus. The convent is attached to the oldest Theology Division buildings on the northeast corner of the campus.
A view of the rear of the upper side’s Immaculate Conception Chapel at center, with St. Edmund’s Hall for student housing at right.
A garden courtyard featuring the Stations of the Cross is located behind the main upper side building at St. Charles.
A maintenance facility stands at the western edge of the seminary property in Lower Merion Township.
Buildings at the rear of the upper side, from right, include the back of Immaculate Conception Chapel, classrooms and offices in the northern wing of the original Theology division building, and a vacant convent.
St. Edmund’s Hall at the rear of the upper side was built in the early 20th century for seminarian housing in the Theology Division.
Vianney Hall, the most recent of new buildings constructed in the 1970s at St. Charles Seminary, stands at center, with the library at right and a portion of St. Edmund’s Hall shown at left. Vianney Hall accommodates seminarians and faculty in the Theology Division, plus classrooms.
The seminary’s Ryan Memorial Library stands at center on the upper side, with Vianney Hall at left.
The exterior of St. Martin Chapel facing west toward the center of the College Division building.
The front entrance to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, showing the College Division or lower side, which will be sold or leased in a plan for consolidation of the campus announced March 7. (Sarah Webb)
The interior of St. Martin Chapel on the seminary’s lower side.
A portion of a vacant upper side building that will be renovated to house seminarians in a consolidated St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.
Viewing a north-facing portion of the St. Charles Seminary campus, at left is the upper side, or Theology Division opposite the faculty residence wing of the larger lower side, or College Division.
A typical room for seminarians in Vianney Hall at St. Charles Seminary.
The Papal Cross, used at the Mass celebrated by Blessed John Paul II in Philadelphia in 1979, stands at the southeast corner of the seminary property, with ball fields in the background below St. Martin Chapel.
The front of St. Martin Chapel with its bell tower, part of the College Division buildings to be closed at St. Charles Seminary.
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I enjoyed the pictures. I have a question about the beautiful chapel. The seats don’t face front. Therefore your head has to be turned to the left or the right. Is there a reason why it was built that way?