The Reading Fire Department was officially organized on March 17, 1773, with the founding of the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Company. The Keystone Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, was organized on December 12, 1855. The company was known by various other names until February [...]
The Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute, founded by Ferdinand Thun and Henry Janssen, was originally organized as the Educational Department of the Textile Machine Works. Below: Ferdinand Thun. Below: Henry Janssen. Textile Machine Works, the world's largest manufacturer of full-fashioned hosiery machinery, [...]
The manufacture of cigars began in Reading about 1800. A box of cigars always stood on the counter of every tavern and its contents were free to all guests. Cigar-makers generally made from 800 to 1,500 cigars a day. Several made 2,000. The [...]
Reading was founded in 1748 by Thomas and Richard Penn (sons of William Penn). In 1752 a modest chapel was built on the east side of Duke Street (lot number 321), now Seventh Street, between Franklin and Chestnut Streets, just opposite the site [...]
For more than half of our nation's history, social services were not provided by the government, but by benevolent and religious institutions. As the number of Catholics in Berks County grew, so did the establishment of a number of convents of women religious [...]
St. Catharine's Orphan Asylum for Girls was founded due to the generosity of Mrs. Catharine Madary, a Reading widow who passed away on May 22, 1871. Below: The photo below shows the small beginning of St. Catharine's Female Orphan's Asylum. Due to her [...]
Milton Snavely Hershey (September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945) was an American chocolatier, businessman, and philanthropist. At the age of 14, Hershey, who'd dropped out of school the year before, expressed an interest in candy making and began apprenticing with a master [...]
The first main shaft for iron ore in Reading was sunk on Mt. Penn around 1843. The first mining there was done for the late George W. Oakeley. At first most of the ore was shipped to Phoenixville and some to a furnace [...]
Around the turn of the last century many people would visit City Park because they believed that the spring that spouted forth "iron water" at an outlet adjoining the Lily Pond had healing properties. Below: City Park Iron Water Spring at an [...]
James Nolan, president of Reading Trust Co. and a railroad and bridge contractor for many years, was born in Ireland in 1844. His dad moved to New York in 1849 where he worked as a stone-cutter. In 1855, part of the family relocated [...]
