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New Rendering Reveals Vision for CHS Lancaster City

A newly released building rendering offers a glimpse into Catherine Hershey School for Early Learning, Lancaster City.

The Center is expected to open in fall 2027 with a multi-building campus located on the corner of N. Plum and E. Walnut Streets.

CHS Lancaster City acquired multiple buildings to create the campus as part of a $350 million initiative by Milton Hershey School to open six Early Childhood Education Centers across Pennsylvania.

CHS provides non-residential, year-round weekday care and education to children from six weeks to age 5 from under-resourced and overburdened backgrounds, with all costs covered for qualifying families. 

A new rendering of the vision for CHS Lancaster City expected to open in fall 2027 on the corner of E. Walnut and N. Plum Streets.

CHS announced plans to expand into Lancaster County in 2022. Construction on CHS Lancaster City began in late 2024.

“This is the start of something truly special,” CHS Lancaster City Center Director Jim Snyder said. “Every space has been designed with purpose to spark growth, support families, and create extraordinary impact in Lancaster City. We’re not just building a center; we’re building brighter futures.”

The future campus will consist of thoughtfully designed buildings to offer high-quality early learning classrooms, indoor and outdoor play spaces, a Family Success Center, gross motor rooms, an Innovation Studio, a STEM Garden, administrative offices, and more.

The buildings will be preserved and reimagined by enhancing the existing structures within each space:

  • The 240 N. Plum St. building will include the Family Success Center and meeting space.
  • The 242 N. Plum St. building will house the Innovation Studio and gross motor room.
  • Between 242 N. Plum St. and 3 Tobacco Ave. is a raised play deck with drop-off and pick-up parking for parents underneath. On the ground level next to the raised deck will be a playground, which will include the STEM Garden.
  • The 3 Tobacco Ave. building will have five stories containing infant & toddler classrooms, preschool classrooms, training/staff resource rooms, partner offices, a health suite, and an administrative suite.

The campus is planned to be interconnected with a skybridge linking the 242 N. Plum St. and 3 Tobacco Ave. buildings.

CHS Lancaster City is the largest planned Center with 18 classrooms and the ability to serve more than 150 children.

The 241 N. Plum St. building, which was acquired by CHS Lancaster City in January 2025, offers potential for CHS to collaborate with the local community so families can access resources in an accessible location. The additional space positions CHS to deliver on its family success approach, designed to support CHS families in establishing safe, strong, financially stable homes so children can thrive both in school and at home.

A previously released rendering of CHS Lancaster City.

CHS Lancaster City is the third of three CHS locations planned in Lancaster County, all of which are remodels. It follows CHS New Danville in Pequea Township, which is tentatively expected to open in summer 2026, and CHS Elizabethtown in West Donegal Township, tentatively expected to open in summer 2027. These efforts build on the CHS mission to nurture, educate, and empower children and families in social and financial need to lead fulfilling and productive lives.

The move into Lancaster is especially meaningful given the region’s deep connection to Milton and Catherine Hershey. Milton Hershey spent his early years in Bart Township and launched his first successful company — the Lancaster Caramel Company — just blocks from the new CHS site.

CHS has operating Centers in Hershey and Harrisburg. A third Dauphin County location, CHS Middletown, is on the verge of opening.

Catherine Hershey Schools

Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning are subsidiaries of Milton Hershey School and will be staffed and operated independently of the Milton Hershey School core model.

Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

© 2025 Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning