Post-Disaster, Doylestown Health To Break Ground On New Children's Village Center

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Doylestown Health will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a new multi-use facility for the Children's Village Child Care Center on Saturday, after the former daycare center endured significant damage in a 2020 tornado.

For more than 35 years, Children's Village has offered programs for children between six weeks of age and kindergarten, open to the public as well as to children of Doylestown Health employees. But since an EF2 tornado decimated the original care center in August of 2020, the program has been operating out of a leased building on Ferry Road, as well as in temporary structures on the hospital campus.

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The new structure will be built on the grounds of the former care center, giving a permanent home to this programming once again.

Two million dollars in funding for the project comes from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The program supports plans and proposals centered on community services, economic development, and revitalization in the commonwealth. The new Doylestown facility is one of sixteen projects which will receive a total of $54.5 million in funding, Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday.

Community donors also worked to fund the new facility through a fundraising campaign run by the Doylestown Health Foundation online. In August, Jeanne and John Hubbard announced they would match all donations up to $1.5 million, offering early momentum for the project.

Now, the new facility is slated to open in 2023.

"The project will construct a new multi-use facility for the Children’s Village Child Care Center at the site of the old center," according to a news release from the state. "At approximately 42,000 square feet, there will be rooms for infants through kindergarteners, multipurpose area, library, playground and outdoors learning space, and a secure entrance to the center."

The building will be a fully accredited early childhood education center, with 16 dedicated classrooms for age groups from infancy through kindergarten, a library space, a multipurpose space, and an integrative outdoor playground and learning space.

The new Children's Village facility will also boast low-impact environmental design and enhanced security.

More information is available online through the Doylestown Health Foundation, including a video camera that lets residents monitor the construction progress.

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