The word "Schuylkill" is of Dutch origin. History has it that the first European to voyage up the Schuylkill was a man named Arendt Corssen of the Dutch East Indies Company. The river itself wasn't easy to find, for the bulrushes were in [...]
A farm belonging to Michael Haak once encompassed about 229 acres in East Reading beginning at a point what is now Thirteenth and Chestnut streets on the west and going as far east as Nineteenth street. On the north the farm was bounded [...]
Ground was broken for the former Berkshire Hotel, Northwest corner of Fifth and Washington Streets, Reading, PA, on the 16th day of December, 1913. Construction work began the next day. Two months were lost, however, due to extreme cold weather, which means that [...]
One of the first business places in Reading was the store of Conrad Weiser at a little crossroads we now know as Fifth and Penn streets in Reading. Weiser moved to the Tulpehocken area in Pennsylvania in 1729, erecting a house upon a [...]
The Madison building was erected between 1926 and 1927 as the Metropolitan Edison building. During the middle years of the 20th century, from 1927 through 1982, this building was successively owned and occupied by two of the area's major institutions, Metropolitan Edison Company [...]
The former South of Penn pool, at Seventh and Laurel Streets, site of an old school building, was built in 1930 by voluntary subscriptions of money, materials and service through a subscription drive by the Reading Times Newspaper. The pool was 60 by [...]
The South Reading Market at 548 Bingaman (southwest comer of 6th and Bingaman) was one of the city's most recognized and enduring structures. It was one of a number of "sanitary market houses" erected just before the two Penn Square market buildings closed [...]
Nestled in the heart of the business district is the Washington Towers apartment building. The apartment building was part of the Court Street Urban Renewal Project. On July 21, 1960, $860,774 in federal capital grants and a federal loan of $1,598,704 was made [...]
On August 12, 1932 dedication services were held for the completion of a stairway to the Pagoda. The dedication address was delivered by the former Mayor John K. Stauffer. Other speakers were Councilman George M. Yocom and Superintendent of Recreation Thomas W. Lantz. [...]
The Reading Fire Department was officially organized on March 17, 1773, with the founding of the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Company. The Keystone Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, was organized on December 12, 1855. The company was known by various other names until February [...]
