Students wait patiently in a dark room, leaning back in chairs and staring at a dark dome. Suddenly, the ceiling lights up like the country night sky. Planetariums have been bringing this experience to people across the globe for decades. However, many don’t know that the Upper Perkiomen High School was once the proud home of its own planetarium.

Before the late 1980s, the Upper Perkiomen High School housed a planetarium, a room dedicated to viewing projections of stars, planets, or constellations. The room originally housed an astronomy class but became a general classroom due to the expense of repair and maintenance. All this led to its current state, the guidance office. During its use, images could be projected on the ceiling of this room, and students could lean back to get a full view. However, all of this has seemingly been lost to time.

Dr. Thomas, an alumnus of Upper Perk, first saw the planetarium as a child at an open house. He remembered that he “came in and walked up the steps, and where guidance is was a big opening. There were steps to go down and you could look up…they did a demonstration [for people across the community].” He went on to describe classes he took in the planetarium as a student. However, when he returned as a teacher in the early 1990s, the planetarium had seemingly vanished. The faculty at the time told him “They just closed it, they didn’t even talk to anyone, they just decided to make it an office.”

The previous Upper Perk Journalism teacher, Ernie Quatrani, recalled the

planetarium, saying “It was a source of pride in the school even if, apparently, it rarely worked…The planetarium was later absorbed into what is now the guidance suite. A shame.” Quatrani also provided the name of the previous astronomy teacher, Mr. Larry Marhefka, who, ironically, later became a guidance counselor. 

The specifics around the planetarium closure are difficult to pinpoint. However, eyewitness accounts said the structure was officially turned into the guidance suite between the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, Dr. Thomas recalled a renovation that involved adding the 300s wing. He said it “started in 1986, so the planetarium was closed probably in t

he 1987-88 school year.” The reasons for its closure were never specified but likely related to the expense and difficulty of maintenance.

According to NPR, in 1970 over half of the United States’ planetariums were in K-12 schools. However, this number has greatly decreased as planetariums are difficult and expensive to maintain and manage. Many were then closed and turned into classrooms, storage facilities, or a guidance suite in Upper Perk’s case.