Dreamland Park was a small amusement park located on Pricetown Road in Ruscombmanor Township, Pennsylvania. The park, which was a short drive from Reading, was operated by Ralph Kreitz, a man who ran many illegal gaming establishments in the 1930s and 40s. The [...]
In 1966, the Reading Automobile Club proposed the construction of a scenic drive on top of Neversink Mountain. Although Reading does have one scenic road - Skyline Drive atop Mt. Penn - in a letter to county commissioners, John S. Giles, Reading Automobile [...]
The first air show at Reading, PA was held during dedication ceremonies for the newly built municipal airport in 1939. As early as 1934 the site for the Reading Municipal Airport was selected. The land in Bern Township was acquired by purchases made [...]
The application for charter for a new troop that was to become troop 161 was completed on May 1, 1936. The Holy Name Society of Holy Guardian Angels' Church was the sponsoring organization. Fr. Frederic Lanshe was the pastor who signed the charter. [...]
The Crystal Palace Hot Wiener Shop was a downtown Reading dining landmark for 82 years. Frank Pestlikes, a native of Rhodes, Greece, started the business at 744 Penn Street in a part of what had once been the Crystal Palace Hotel and Market [...]
Few people know that a Boy Scout Camp once existed on Mount Penn. Camp Howard was a 26-acre campsite located on List Road on the top of Mount Penn in the City of Reading. Records indicate that Scouts began using the city-owned land [...]
Decades ago, Reading was a mighty manufacturing town where the Reading Railroad — once the world's largest company, now a spot on the Monopoly board — built a 19th-century transportation empire, and factories produced everything from hats to hardware. At one time, the [...]
Camping has always been essential to Scouting, and was embraced by even the earliest Boy Scouts of Berks and Schuylkill counties, who flocked to summer Scout camps even before Councils had formed to support their fledgling troops. Throughout the years many camps have [...]
The Fifth and Spring school house was an 8-room building erected in 1900. The school was adjacent to Church and Spring school, a 4-room building erected in 1894. Below: Fifth and Spring school located on the northeast corner of Fifth and Spring Streets, [...]
In the 1870s, three young men, salesmen for Brown, Thomson and McWhirter, at Hartford, Conn., had a dream. They dreamed the dream of every ambitious youth that of owning a business establishment of which they might be proud of. They had only a [...]
