With the sale of the Archbishop Prendergast High School to Delaware County Community College, plans are to retain the front of the building but gut the interior.

The vacant building is being demolished to make way for a community-centered college campus on 7.5 acres of the 30-acre property, combining the college’s Upper Darby Center and the Southeast Center in Sharon Hill.

The site will also host an early childhood education center and two faculty offices.

In an effort to recycle as much of the contents of the building as possible, a sale of interior items took place this past weekend at the site, located at Lansdowne Ave. at Garrett Road in Drexel Hill.

Among the items for sale were interior doors, transom windows, 2-foot by 4-foot suspended ceiling, drop-in ceiling fluorescent lights, wood flooring, chestnut church pews dating back more than 100 years, a cabinet in the church sacristy, a white marble water font, book and trophy cases, claw foot tubs, lockers, small chandeliers, auditorium seats, a kitchen, and a large Archbishop Prendergast sign that was located at the gym door.

Exterior doors and windows will be for sale at a time closer to demolition. There will also be a separate gym and convent sale.

The cash-only sale was handled by Pre-Demolition Sale.

The Archbishop Prendergast building was originally constructed as an orphanage, opening in 1920 as St. Vincent’s Orphanage after the Archdiocese acquired the land from the Drexel family in 1917.

The orphanage building was converted into Archbishop Prendergast High School for Boys in 1952. A few years later a second building was built which became the boys’ school, with Prendergast designated as a Catholic high school for girls.

In 2006, both schools were merged on the campus as the Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School, housed in the former Bonner High building.

More about this unusual sale of mementos is online.

This video takes an affectionate look at Archbishop Prendergast High School in light of a Jan. 6, 2012 Blue Ribbon Commission decision to close Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School. That decision was later reversed following a grass roots business effort to keep the school open.