In recent years, we have completed renovations to our playing fields with the installation of artificial “field-turf” and have acquired the former warehouse next to our athletic fields and practice track and renovated it as a field house with lockers, fencing practice area, and maintenance and storage space. This was just a prelude to our latest renovation project.

Our two major classroom buildings are now 85 and 40 years old. Most of our alumni would recognize the old building as “their” St. Benedict’s. We have restored these buildings and improved them with new wiring, modernized HVAC systems, and better traffic patterns. The fourth floor science department in our oldest building has undergone a thorough renovation, allowing us for the first time to offer Freshman earth science classes and upgrade other science programs.

The much-needed work in both of these buildings has given us twenty renewed classrooms, and great improvements in climate control, crucial for our 11 month calendar. We have made comparable renovations to St. Mary’s Hall, which houses our 7th- and 8th-grade students. At the same time, we proceeded with plans to create new space for St. Mary’s school, so that our main building will again be available for St. Benedict's exclusive use. In September 2001, we opened for the first time since 1973 without housing the grammar school, which now occupies its own new building. Meanwhile, the former library has become a handsome new boardroom, and St. Benedict’s men can enjoy lunch in the refurbished cafeteria at an hour not scheduled around the grade-schoolers’ meals.

In six months we completed a job that would normally have taken over a year to accomplish. A major initial commitment, including specific grant support for the ’59 building, came from MBNA America, in whose honor the building was recently renamed MBNA Hall. The rest of the funding came in December 2000 from a $20 million bond issued by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the principal on which must be repaid by 2030.

Click here for information on how you can contribute to the continuing success of St. Benedict's Prep or contact Paul E. Thornton, VP for Development at (973) 792-5775 or pthornton@sbp.org.