Until 1964 the most familiar structure in West Reading was the West Reading Hotel on the north side of the Penn Ave. between 5th and 6th. Below: West Reading Hotel, northeast corner of Sixth and Penn Ave. The three-story structure had [...]
The buildings at the southeast corner of 3rd and Penn Streets, presented the above appearance, when, in 1825, Daniel Graeff moved his family and dry goods and grocery store into the corner building (No.1). His previous location was on the south side of [...]
John Nolen (1869–1937) was the first American to identify himself exclusively as a town and city planner. Nolen was orphaned as a child and placed in Girard College. After he graduated first in his class in 1884, he worked as a grocery clerk [...]
Bern Township is a township in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Bern Township was settled in 1733, mostly by German farmers. It was established in 1738 and was named for the city of Berne, Switzerland. Originally, it was bounded on the east by the Schuylkill [...]
The Reading Red Sox are a defunct minor league baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. The ball club was based in Reading, Pennsylvania, and played in the Class A New York–Pennsylvania League (1933–34) and its successor league, the Double-A Eastern [...]
Richards' toy corner, located on the northeast corner of Front and Buttonwood, was probably the largest store devoted to toys ,year round, in the city. No "youngster" of whatever age, passing by 101 Buttonwood Street, could resist the enormous temptation to go inside [...]
Located at the Southwest corner of 8th and Penn Streets in Reading, PA is a building patterned architecturally after Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, PA. The building, erected in 1929 by the Penn National Bank and Trust Co. on the site of its former [...]
The Strand Theatre was located at the Northeast corner of at 9th and Spring Streets in Reading. The city's largest neighborhood theater was constructed by C.H. Schlegel and Son and opened on February 21, 1920. As the Reading Eagle ad of that day [...]
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 [...]
