At one time Reading was dominated by textile manufacturers. By the 1960s and early 1970s most of the textile companies moved south, but a couple that remained - Talbott and David Crystal – had outlets, mainly for women’s clothing. Under the leadership of [...]
While three different brewers lived in this former “brewery mansion” over the years, people generally referred to the place as “the Stocker Mansion,” named for the brewer who built it. It stood on the northwest corner of 11th and Exeter. On this site [...]
When the oldest citizens were boys, and even before, there were summer gardens and other popular resorts in Reading and vicinity. Before the law was enforced prohibiting the selling of strong liquors on Sunday, there were “summer gardens” in connection with some of [...]
The Penn Square Pedestrian Mall was originally a component of a much larger urban renewal plan. Sasaki Associates' Downtown East Urban Renewal Plan of 1971 proposed an enclosed shopping mall in downtown Reading to compete with shopping malls being built in the suburbs. [...]
The 750,000 sq ft Fairgrounds Square Mall was developed by Interstate Properties in the late 1970’s. Recognizing the potential of the Berks retail trade area and the need for a pleasant climate-controlled atmosphere the mall was constructed at the former location of the [...]
Around 1992, 8 million people used to shop the Reading area outlets each year. People would drive from near and far to shop in the old knitting and textile mills that were converted into more than 300 outlet stores. The number of shops [...]
The property at 730 Centre Avenue, known as the Wilhelm Mansion, consists of two buildings, the mansion and the carriage house on 0.63 acres of landscaped setting on one of Reading's most attractive and prestigious boulevards. The mansion is a three-story Gothic Revival [...]
The Reading Railroad massacre of July 23, 1877, in which ten people lost their lives, was the climax of local events in Reading, Pennsylvania during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, from which the Reading Railroad was born, [...]
Ferdinand Winter, who for many years was a well-known business man of Reading, and a member of the leather manufacturing firm of Winter & Goetz, retired to his home at 900 Centre Avenue. Below: Ferdinand Winter Residence, 900 Centre Avenue, as it [...]
The Reading Bolt and Nut Works was a plant extending over some eight acres of land, lying between Third and Fourth streets, and between the Lebanon Valley Railroad and Buttonwood Street. The large and important industry had its inception in 1865. James Hervey [...]
