The town of Reading was chartered as a borough by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1783, and granted a new Borough Charter in 1813, with the legal boundaries set beyond those of the original town plan. The northern and southern boundaries were still [...]
This famous locomotive was the first built by Matthias W. Baldwin, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was constructed for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad in 1832, and since that road became a part of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in [...]
For decades, locals and visitors alike marveled—or rather chuckled—at the so-called “Road to Nowhere,” a rare breed of Pennsylvania roadway that, for years, led travelers absolutely nowhere of significance. Built in 1964, this four-lane wonder began as a strip of asphalt in the [...]
From day one of the 20th century it was recognized that the future well-being of the development of center-city Reading was inextricably tied to the Reading Company train tracks cutting right through the very heart of the city at Seventh and Penn. Below: [...]
In 1900, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad began construction of the sprawling railroad shops along North Sixth Street in Reading. They were the largest railroad shops in America, and unlike most railroads, allowed the Reading to make its own engines. The Reading shops [...]
The Reading Foundry, at 7th & Chestnut Streets, once housed the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad heavy duty shops prior to 1904. Below: The Reading Foundry, at 7th & Chestnut Streets. The construction of the railway in 1836 immediately stimulated enterprises of various kinds, [...]
From September 20, 1924 to June 29,1979, dirt-track racing fans crowded the 80 acre site of the Reading Fairgrounds located in Muhlenburg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania which was home to a half-mile oval that was known as “The Home of Champions” Modified stock [...]
On April 20, 1915, two adjoining tracts of land in Muhlenberg Township, totaling 54 acres, were purchased for $20,750 for the site of the Reading Fairgrounds. Several subsequent purchases increased the area to approximately 78 acres. The site was ideal since it was [...]
Electric lines came early in Berks, the East Reading Electric Railway enjoying the distinction of being one of the oldest electric lines east of the Mississippi, and dating from 1888, the year of Frank Sprague’s successful electrification of the Richmond, Virginia Street Railway [...]
In 1886, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) decided to provide a safe pedestrian route across its main line and yard tracks east of the Outer Station in Reading. With the closest underpass located two blocks north of the station, pedestrians coming from [...]
