How Ninth Street Helped Illuminate a City
In the early decades of the twentieth century, Reading was a city in motion—industrial, crowded, and increasingly conscious of [...]
When Christmas Lights Glowed on Ninth Street
Long before Christmas lights became a seasonal expectation in Reading, North Ninth Street merchants made illumination a statement of [...]
Leisz’s Bridge: A History of a Lost Muhlenberg Landmark
If you stand at the quiet bend where River Road meets Leisz’s Bridge Road today, the Schuylkill seems calm—slow, [...]
Help or Harm? How Federal Programs Reshaped Reading
How Reading, Pennsylvania Became a Testing Ground for Every Federal Urban Policy—and Paid the Price In 1934, a Reading [...]
A Ride Through Time: The Golden Age of Reading’s Trolleys
It was a warm Saturday morning in June 1914, and Sarah Mitchell stood at Fifth and Penn Streets in [...]
How Reading’s Outlet Era Ended: Not Why… But How It Happened
For decades, Reading stood proudly as the Outlet Capital of the World—a destination so unique that millions of shoppers [...]
Thanksgiving in Berks County: A Journey Through Time and Tradition
From Lenape harvest celebrations to Pennsylvania Dutch apple-butter parties, to modern-day mission meals, the story of Thanksgiving in Berks [...]
Joseph’s: The Rise and Legacy of a Penn Street Clothing Landmark
This story holds special meaning for me—for Joseph’s was where my mother brought me each year to be outfitted [...]
A Wonderland on Penn Street: The Magic of Christmas at Pomeroy’s in Reading
For generations of Reading, Pennsylvania residents, the Christmas season didn't officially begin with the first snowfall or the first [...]
The Gateway to Reading, Pennsylvania: Transformation at Second and Penn
Cross the Penn Street Bridge heading west and you arrive, in an instant, at what generations of city leaders [...]
Ghost Stories from the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower
High above Reading on the Mount Penn ridgeline, the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower mixes postcard views with moonlit [...]
Five Generations of Pretzels: The Tom Sturgis Story
There's something magical about biting into a perfectly crisp, salt-dusted pretzel. That satisfying crunch, that unmistakable flavor—it's a taste [...]
Seiger’s Variety Store: The Shillington Shop That Never Closed
For most of the 20th century, if you lived near 105 W. Lancaster Avenue in Shillington, Pennsylvania, you had [...]
The Story of Tack’s Sandwich Shop in East Reading
Few eateries in Reading have inspired the kind of loyalty that Tack’s Sandwich Shop did. For nearly eight decades, [...]
Reading, Pennsylvania: Pretzel Capital of the World
If you grew up in Berks County, you’ve probably heard it your whole life: Reading is the Pretzel Capital [...]
The Hampden Haunting: Chief Dell’s Ghost and the Firehouse-Turned-Apartments at 11th and Greenwich in Reading, PA
At 11th and Greenwich Streets in Reading, Pennsylvania, there’s a brick building most people today recognize as an apartment [...]
The Van Reed Story: Men, Mills, a Covered Bridge — and a River Set Free
When I was about eleven, my brother and I roamed our northeast Reading neighborhood collecting newspapers for recycling. We [...]
Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing, PA: From Farmland to Retail Landmark
The site that would eventually become Berkshire Mall spent much of its existence as productive farmland, woven into the [...]
The Berkshire Mall’s Glass Elevator: A Vertical Memory Through 55 Years
When the Berkshire Mall opened on February 10, 1970, it debuted a multi-level anchor lineup—Sears, Lit Brothers, and John [...]
Berkshire Mall’s Final Chapter: From Fenced-Off Ruin to Open-Air Revival
Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing sits at an inflection point after a turbulent 2024–2025. By late 2024 the borough, responding [...]
Allentown Diocese fills Mary’s Shrine for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
On October 7, 2025—the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary—the Diocese of Allentown traveled to Washington, D.C., for [...]