Lesher’s Hotel: A Lost Landmark of the Pottsville Pike
For much of the 20th century, Lesher’s Hotel stood as a well-known landmark along the Pottsville Pike in what [...]
History of the Hyde Park Bedding Company
The Hyde Park Bedding Company, a long-standing fixture of the Berks County industrial landscape, evolved from a modest machine [...]
The Latino Heritage of Reading and Berks County
Walk down Penn Street in Reading today, and you'll hear the rhythms of salsa and merengue drifting from storefronts, [...]
The Polish Ancestry of Reading and Berks County
The story of Polish Americans in Reading and Berks County begins around 1850, when the first Polish immigrants arrived [...]
Christmas Traditions in Reading and Berks County in Times Past
Berks County, Pennsylvania—with Reading as its bustling seat—has long been a stronghold of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) culture, where Christmas [...]
A Mohnton Christmas Eve
The winter of 1920 had wrapped the Governor Mifflin area in a blanket of white, and on this particular [...]
Christmas on Penn Street: When Downtown Reading Sparkled with Holiday Magic
There was a time when Christmas in Reading, Pennsylvania meant something truly magical—a sensory experience that began the moment [...]
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, [...]