In 1891, George Frederick Lauer, chairman of the Lauer Brewing Co., erected an elegant mansion which fronted on South Third, at Chestnut. Below: The Fredrick Lauer Mansion, 1897. In April, 1894, a Reading Times newspaper reporter gave this description of the mansion: [...]
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 [...]
The former Bachman Pretzel Company, was founded by Joseph S. Bachman in 1884. Joseph S. Bachman (b. 1863 - d. 1914), was born in Austria, and came to America with his parents, Francis and Margaret (Settler) Bachman, in 1868. He was educated in [...]
The original public building in Reading stood in the center of Penn Square, directly at the intersection of Penn and Fifth Streets, then called Market and Callowhill Streets. It was the most central situation, and therefore the most convenient, and it was architecturally [...]
William Henry Luden, developer of the menthol cough drop and founder of the Luden's company in Reading, PA, amassed considerable wealth through his confectionery business. In 1882, William H. Luden began modestly making candy for Christmas, with thirty pounds of sugar, at No. [...]
John Nolen (1869–1937) was the first American to identify himself exclusively as a town and city planner. Nolen was orphaned as a child and placed in Girard College. After he graduated first in his class in 1884, he worked as a grocery clerk [...]
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 [...]
George Bornemann was born October 5, 1838, at Lingen, Province of Hanover, Germany. His father was a rope-maker; his mother, Louisa (born, Rolfs) died when he was six years old. The schools of his native town provided his elementary education, and he early [...]
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 [...]
