Egelman’s Park, about 30 acres, along the west side of Hill Road (above Angora Road), was once one of the “beauty spots” of the Reading Park system. It owes its beginnings to Egelman’s Springs, which was once a source of water for the [...]
In the early 1900s, when hosiery mogul Jacob Nolde acquired the land on which Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center now stands, there was only one white pine tree growing among the grassy meadow. He hired an Austrian forester to create an entire forest [...]
Film of City Park, Penn's Common, 1929 showing old bandstand and prison. Water-Works, Prison, and Fairgrounds Reading City Park at the head of Penn Street was set apart as early as 1749 by John and Richard Penn as public commons that [...]
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 [...]
Many years ago the glen stretching between present day Egelman's Park and Pendora Park was given the name Rosenthal or Rose Valley. The glen is formed by the depression of neighboring mountains. Rose Valley is situated in Lower Alsace Township, named after the [...]
Neversink Mountain, and its counterpart, Mt. Penn, are composed of Hardyston quartzite which being resistant to the atmospheric agencies, has been reduced more slowly than the adjacent limestones and so form steep hills or mountains rising 600 to 800 feet above that portion [...]
The Mount Penn scenic lookout at the southern end of Skyline Drive in Reading is situated on some of the oldest and structurally most complicated rocks in the state. Below: Mount Penn scenic lookout at the southern end of Skyline Drive. [...]
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 Tulpehocken Creek is the largest stream in Western Berks County. Arising from springs west of Myerstown in Lebanon County, it enters Berks near Stouchsburg in Marion Township and flows in an easterly direction approximately 26 miles until it reaches the Schuylkill River [...]
The first main shaft for iron ore in Reading was sunk on Mt. Penn around 1843. The first mining there was done for the late George W. Oakeley. At first most of the ore was shipped to Phoenixville and some to a furnace [...]
