FRAMINGHAM -- The MetroWest Jewish Day School, which has leased property from the town since it opened in 2003, has paid $1.65 million for a permanent home at 159 Prospect St.

The 10.5-acre property is in a residential neighborhood and includes a 110-year-old house, which school officials say they intend to preserve.

A group of five donors supplied the money to purchase the land in December from Moynihan Nominee Realty Trust, a group of siblings that inherited the property when their parents died.

"It’s marvelous. It’s a beautiful, beautiful site," Steven Finn, the school’s vice president, said yesterday.

Finn said the school has no immediate plans to move out of the former Juniper Hill School, and a decision has not been made about whether to build on the property or expand the 6,000-square-foot house.

"We haven’t even yet developed our next stage plan for developing," said Head of School Carolyn Keller said.

Finn said members of the Moynihan family were pleased the house would be saved and the land would not be turned into a residential development.

"We talked with one of the daughters who said they’re pleased the house is being preserved and happy it won’t be a development," Finn said.

The 10.5 acres of land is valued at $600,000, according to the town assessment records. The ho the property is worth $850,000.

"We just fell in love with (the property) the first day we saw it," Keller said.

School officials were looking for land in Framingham, which is central to the 11 towns where its current students live.

Keller said the property is ideal for a school because it has open space for children to play, fruit trees, a barn and a pool.

The school so far has 30 students in kindergarten through third grade. It plans to add classes every year until it serves 100 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Finn said the school will need a permit from the town to operate a school on residential property, but it would not need a zoning change.

"We will be filing with the town to change the use to school purposes," he said.

The private school’s three-year lease for space at Juniper Hill expires this year. Officials intend to continue renting on a year-to-year basis, Keller said.

Framingham Superintendent Christopher Martes said the MetroWest Jewish Day School has "been a great tenant." He said the rent it pays the School Department covers the expenses to maintain the building.