In the 1930s Reading, Pennsylvania, was a medium-sized city of 111,000 inhabitants. As the seat of Berks County, Reading was the social, political, and economic focus for the predominantly agricultural communities that surrounded it. It was also a faultless embodiment of Main Street, [...]
Film of City Park, Penn's Common, 1929 showing old bandstand and prison. Water-Works, Prison, and Fairgrounds Reading City Park at the head of Penn Street was set apart as early as 1749 by John and Richard Penn as public commons that [...]
Michael Brecht, (1732-1814), the third son of an emigrant, came to Reading in January 1752, the year Berks County was established, and built a simple dwelling on lot No. 391 as stipulated in the land patent of July 16, 1752. The lot, 60 [...]
Around 1939 the white facade Post Office at the Southeast corner of 5th and Washington Streets was constructed. The present post office replaced another post office located at the same corner. Erected in 1889, the turreted brick and limestone edifice was constructed [...]
Two episodes of serious flooding occurred in southeastern Pennsylvania in the summer of 1850. A tropical storm moving north from Virginia soaked the region overnight on July 18-19, causing flash floods that killed at least twenty along the Schuylkill River. Great destruction to [...]
Long before the construction of the Berks County prison in Bern Township a battle raged over what to do with the old jail located in City Park. Below: Berks County Prison (1847-1936). A museum, convention hall, and memorial were the most [...]
Where the Reading, Perkiomen and Philadelphia Turnpike (now Perkiomen Avenue) intersects Penn Street, there once stood a wall with a Stone Heart in the south face of the stone wall. The wall was about forty feet east of North Eleventh Street. Below: [...]
Hardly anyone will remember the building at Douglas and Weiser Streets as the former Douglas and Weiser Junior High School. The original school building was built in 1903. By 1912 it was enlarged twice to include two additional wings. A small addition was [...]
The word "Schuylkill" is of Dutch origin. History has it that the first European to voyage up the Schuylkill was a man named Arendt Corssen of the Dutch East Indies Company. The river itself wasn't easy to find, for the bulrushes were in [...]
Many years ago the glen stretching between present day Egelman's Park and Pendora Park was given the name Rosenthal or Rose Valley. The glen is formed by the depression of neighboring mountains. Rose Valley is situated in Lower Alsace Township, named after the [...]
