In the annals of Reading, Pennsylvania’s commercial history, few stories capture the spirit of grit, humor, and community connection as vividly as that of Solomon Boscov, the Russian immigrant who built a retail empire from a few dry goods and a horse-drawn wagon. [...]
John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to distinguish him from [...]
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, [...]
Count Berthold von Imhoff was a famous painter of religious art works. He was born Jan. 14, 1868, in Karlsruhe, Germany. At age 12, he started studying at various European art schools including Oberwinter, Halle-an-der-Halle, and the art institute at Karlsruhe, Baden. In [...]
In 1823, George Lauer, father of Frederick Lauer, started in the business of manufacturing beer in limited quantities in Womelsdorf. Three years later, in 1826, the Lauer family relocated to Reading, where a small brewery was established on Chestnut street near Third, on [...]
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 Bachman story starts in Reading, Pennsylvania, with a young immigrant baker named Joseph S. Bachman. Joseph was born in 1863 in Austria and came to the United States with his parents, Francis and Margaret Bachman, in 1868. He grew up in Reading, [...]
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 [...]
