After 150 years, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary is downsizing, reports Joe Holden for CBS Philadelphia.

The Catholic seminary is moving from its sprawling 73-acre campus in Lower Merion to a much smaller space in Ambler. There are a lot of moving parts in a transition this big. Some things, however, will not be moving along to the new campus.

The seminary tasked employees Mary Ann Sullivan and Maria Stumpf with finding new homes for many of the paintings and art pieces that don’t have a place in Ambler.

The process was overwhelming according to Sullivan. “We didn’t know how it was going to end out, and how it would be received, and do open houses,” she said. “I mean let people in and just wander the place and take stuff down? No, that wouldn’t work.”

Sullivan and Stumpf collected the pieces into a single room and welcomed churches from around the region to see what they might like. The process has been successful so far. They even reconnected the artwork of a priest who had recently passed away with his family.

“It’s just been a beautiful experience for people to share their emotions, hearts,” Sullivan said. Read more about the efforts to downsize Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary at CBS Philadelphia.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on MONTCO Today in September 2024.