The tradition of the fire truck parade on Penn Street dates back to the turn of the 20th century. It is not known exactly when these parades began on a regular basis. However, they may have started with the tradition of driving a [...]
Three hundred years ago few Europeans lived in what we now call Berks County. At that time it was the home of wild animals and Indians. Great forests of giant trees were found in its valleys and on most of its rugged hills. [...]
Read’s Department Store was located on the northeast corner of 7th and Penn Streets. This imposing 3-story building was under construction just as the Great Depression struck in 1929; consequently, the intended business firm went bankrupt and the store went up for sale [...]
The American colonists included large numbers of Germans, many of whom had initially been encouraged by William Penn to settle Pennsylvania, as he deliberately tried to attract Europeans who felt persecuted. By 1775, at least 100,000 Germans had entered the colonies, making up [...]
President George Washington was once the city’s guest, on October 1, 1794, when he came here from Philadelphia and remained over night at the Farmers’ Bank building, then the Federal Inn. Previously Washington had been at Womelsdorf and other parts of the county. [...]
The Model Cities Program was an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. The concept was presented by labor leader Walter Reuther to President Johnson in an off-the-record White House meeting on May 20, 1965. In 1966, new legislation [...]
The Borough of Hamburg, located in the northeastern section of Berks County, is sixteen miles north of Reading. The land herein was taken up as soon as 1732, immediately after the territory had been released by the Indians and a patent was issued [...]
Birdsboro owes its origin to pioneer William Bird who here established the first iron works in this section and the second in Pennsylvania, the date being in 1740. It was at first a simple forge, to which the founder later added other iron [...]
The Reading Council, which would in time become the Daniel Boone Council, was established in March 1916, when Woodrow Wilson was president and World War I was underway in Europe. The United States would enter the war the following year, three years after [...]
This famous locomotive was the first built by Matthias W. Baldwin, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was constructed for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad in 1832, and since that road became a part of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in [...]
