Academy at Penguin Hall heads back to auction as town places lien for unpaid taxes
Local News
The all-girls Catholic school closed last year and filed for bankruptcy. Previous auctions were delayed before a sale fell through last month.
A girls’ Catholic school in Wenham filed a $26 million bankruptcy. Faculty and family feel like they’ve been swindled.
The Academy at Penguin Hall is heading back to the auction block after a previous sale of the former school property fell through.
The nearly 44-acre property at 36 Essex St. in Wenham will be re-offered at auction Oct. 26, according to the Paul E. Saperstein Company, which is handling the sale.
The property was previously scheduled to go up for auction after the all-girls Catholic school closed last year and filed for bankruptcy. That auction was postponed several times and ultimately canceled because of the bankruptcy proceedings, which have since concluded.
The property was auctioned again last month, subject to closing. But the winning bidder did not complete the transaction, according to the Paul E. Saperstein Company.
The latest auction comes as the town of Wenham has placed a lien on the property over unpaid property taxes. As of Sept. 22, the Academy at Penguin Hall owed the town $292,707.06 in real estate taxes, Town Administrator Steve Poulos said.
The town has not sought to foreclose on the property, which would allow it to take possession of the land.
However, a future buyer would need to address the outstanding taxes, interest, and costs as part of the sale before obtaining clear title to the property, Poulos said.
The school closed abruptly in June 2025 after its board filed for bankruptcy, listing about $26 million in debt. The filing came just days after the school had collected tuition payments for the upcoming school year, according to a Boston Globe report published at the time.
Faculty members said they went unpaid for the final six weeks of the school year, while court records showed the school owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various creditors, including National Grid and other vendors.
The Academy at Penguin Hall opened in 2016 after purchasing the property for $10.3 million. The Catholic college preparatory school for girls enrolled 70 students during the 2024-25 school year, down from more than 150 before the pandemic.
The property was originally built in 1929 as a summer home and later used as a retreat house for nuns, a conference center, and the headquarters of the former Mullen Advertising agency before becoming a school.
The upcoming auction may determine the property’s future.
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