A Brief History of Welsh Valley Middle School

Do you ever ponder on questions like “When was Welsh Valley founded?”, “What is the oldest building in Welsh Valley?” and “Why is our campus California Styled as an outdoor campus?”

If you do think about all this and more, continue reading to find out a quick glimpse in the history of Welsh Valley.

In the 1860’s a man named Percival Roberts Jr. inherited a 160 acre plot of land in present day Penn Valley. As Roberts grew older, he got more land and then he decided to sell his land to developers, the Lower Merion School District being one of them.

LMSD used the land to build their third junior high, Welsh Valley, alongside Bala Cynwyd and Ardmore Junior High.

Welsh Valley was originally a 7th to 9th grade school; it took its campus style from Harriton High School because the vast majority of Welsh Valley students go to Harriton (both opened in 1958). When it was opened, the A, B, C and D buildings were initially built.

Welsh Valley Junior High became Welsh Valley Middle School in 1978 and Ardmore Junior High was closed due to decreasing enrollment. Welsh Valley then became 6th through 8th grade and began to admit students from Penn Valley, Belmont Hills and Gladwyne Elementary. In 1999, the E building was built. And much later in 2015 the G building was constructed.

Then in 2022, Black Rock Middle School was built and the grades in middle schools changed once more from 6th to 8th grade to 5th to 8th grade. A result of this was double graduations in the elementary schools with both 4th and 5th grade graduating and Gladwyne and Penn Wynne became the elementary schools that went to Black Rock Middle School.

This also meant the Penn Wynne and Gladwyne Elementary students who were already in middle school changed schools and went to Black Rock.

This resulted in many sad students due to the fact they had to leave behind all their middle school friends. It also affected elementary school programs like chorus band and orchestra because instead of 4th and 5th graders for orchestra and band it was narrowed down to just 4th graders, and the choir program opened up to 3rd and 4th graders.

One effect it had on teachers was the fact 5th grade teachers had to move to middle schools. Our school Welsh Valley got teachers from Cynwyd and Belmont Hills Elementary, and elementary school rooms were changed a lot due to the opening in space.

Special thanks to Mr. Lewis for a lot of info and the images.