The Tredyffrin/Easttown School District voted unanimously to name the new building "Bear Hill Elementary School" Monday night. See why here.
Max Bennett, Patch Staff
|Updated Tue, Mar 25, 2025 at 9:19 am ET
TREDYFFRIN-EASTTOWN, PA — It's official, the new elementary school in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District has a name.
The school board Monday night voted unanimously to dub the new facility "Bear Hill Elementary School." Bear Hill Elementary is located at 1200 Swedesford Road in Berwyn and is expected to open in August 2027.
According to the district, the naming process began in November 2024 and saw 246 unique name suggestions from members of the public.
During the process, the district established requirements for the name. Those included names that were indicative of the area in which they are located and not named after individuals or groups, east of spelling and pronunciations, historical and geographical significance, and consideration for first responder organizations so as not to create confusion when emergency responses are necessary.
Ultimately, 104 of the suggested named did not meet the criteria, and 60 loosely met the criteria. Examples of the latter include Liberty Forge, Rock Hill, Upper Main Line, Forestside, Patriots Path, and Airdrie.
Find out what's happening in Tredyffrin-Easttownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In the end, 18 names met the criteria. They were:
The district whittled those 18 down to four: Bluestone Elementary School, Covered Bridge Elementary School, Blue Heron Elementary School, and Bear Hill Elementary School.
In early March, the committee recommended the board adopt Bear Hill Elementary School as the name.
"While it may seem this is a reference to the adjacent Bear Hill Road, the name 'Bear Hill' has a deeper historical significance," Dr. Michael Syzmendera, Director of Educational Program, said at Monday's meeting.
The new school sits in the area of historic Howelville, one of Tredyffrin’s earliest villages, dating back to the early 1700s, he said.
"The village was named after the Howell family who owned the Inn at Howellville for at least 40 years," according to Syzmendera.
He went on to say the first school in the area opened in 1720, and was called Howellville School, which is sometimes referred to as the Davis School since it was on land leased for 999 years from the Davis family.
Syzmendera said Howellville was an industrial town with at least seven different quarries and four separate quarrying operations.
"The village sat at the bottom of a natural bowl where three hilly roads met to form a triangle," he said. "The three roads were Bear Hill Road, Howellville Road, and Swedesford Road. "This triangle became a convenient place for horses and wagons to stop and was home to the area’s first tavern in 1745, later called Howell’s Tavern."
That triangle became a hub of activity and development, Syzmendera said.
The area saw a woolen mill, a sawmill, a shoemaker, a wheelwright, a blacksmith, and a store crop up over the years.
Bear Hill Road was named after the Black Bear Tavern, which sat on the site of the current 7-Eleven at the 30/252 intersection in 1785, according to the district.
Due to the aforementioned first responder confusion concerns, the district ruled out Howellville and Swedesford as naming options for the new school, Syzmendera said.
"Bear Hill is the remaining option to honor the triangle and its history in the village of Howeville," he said.
Syzmendera discussed the other three names in depth, as well.
But ultimately, it was Bear Hill that the community (more than 1,300 instance of public input were recorded during the naming process), committee, and board felt most appropriate for the new school's name.
Board President Todd Kantorczyk thanked Syzmendera and District Communications Specialist Chris Connolly for leading the effort to find a suitable name for the new school and to the public information committee led by board member Dr. Yolanda Allen for their work in handling the feedback.
"Last but not least, I really want to thank the community for their level of engagement," Kantorczyk said. "This includes community organizations like the Tredyffrin Historical Society, but also includes our individual community members, who, as you can see, were very active in submitting names, comments, and feedback on the suggestions."
Board member Dr. Roberta Hotinski said "Bear Hill" had a lot of community support, which she said bore on her decision to vote for the name.
"We're encouraged that so many people were excited about submitting names," she said. "So many of them were really good names and suggestions. We listened to the community and that's how we came to this choice."
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.