The campus of a tiny Catholic college in Warner that closed earlier this year will likely remain a destination for members of the Catholic faith.

The Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire has reached a tentative agreement to buy 135 acres of land and several buildings that were part of the property of the former Magdalen College, it announced on Wednesday.

“The proposed purchase would continue the property’s use for prayer, evangelization, and learning,” the Diocese of Manchester said in a statement.

Magdalen College, with its sprawling campus at the base of Mount Kearsarge, closed in May due to declining enrollment coupled with a looming loan payment, former president Ryan Messmore said. The college, which opened in 1973, never surpassed 100 students and weathered a series of turbulent periods, capped off by a mass resignation of the Board of Trustees in 2020.

When the college closed, the land and property went to the Catholic Orders of Foresters, an insurance company to which the college owed money.  The tentative agreement between the insurance company and the Roman Catholic church would preserve its use for religious purposes, and also keep it off the town’s tax rolls. 

“Additional details about how the property will be used to carry out the mission of the Catholic Church with the property acquisition will be available at the conclusion of the sales and purchase process,” the Diocese said.

The announcement halts most of the speculation about the future of the campus. Earlier this year, for example, the property had been discussed at a Warner Housing Advisory Committee meeting as a possible location for senior housing.

Magdalen College was the first New Hampshire higher education institution to close since Daniel Webster College in Nashua shuttered in 2017. The owner of Daniel Webster rents out several buildings to businesses. Other New Hampshire colleges have been converted to schools and hotels following their closures.

Magdalen was founded by three lay members of the Catholic church and operated out of a hotel in Bedford for its first 18 years. In 1991, the college relocated to Warner.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.