By MaryBeth. Thank you for creating GoReadingBerks, one of my go-to websites when I need a dose of hometown nostalgia. Like you, I have fond memories of growing up in Reading. My memories include: being eye level with cases full of Pennsylvania Dutch [...]
Everything could be bought in that 400 block, from food to a diamond, from tires to a clock. Below: 400 block of Penn Street. North Side. First there was Kins for fine ladies to shop, and Pep Boys and Charles Auto Took good [...]
I was fortunate enough to grow up in the city of Reading before it lost its small town feel to the outside world. I was born in 1968 so I was able to experience the good throughout the 70s and 80s before Reading [...]
In 1967, "The Wincanton Report,” a federally funded study, was published about corruption and organized crime in a small city. Wincanton, a fictional name chosen to protect innocent people, was later disclosed to be Reading, Pa., a city that for 30 years was [...]
City fathers 100 years ago were screaming about the double parkers on Penn Street, and citing a city parking ordinance prohibiting the parking of a vehicle in front of any hotel, hospital, church or public building. In 1922, most of the shoppers came [...]
The Neversink Reservoir sits adjacent to the 10th & South playground. The Neversink Reservoir was built in 1936 on just over 29 acres of land, which was acquired by the city in 1865 for $890. The cost of construction, including fixing the initial [...]
By 2045, the U.S. will be a majority minority nation. During that year, whites will comprise 49.7 percent of the population in contrast to 24.6 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for blacks, 7.9 percent for Asians, and 3.8 percent for multiracial populations. This [...]
By 1910 it was clear to Reading’s leaders that the biggest progress was quickly moving beyond the City limits. A few new suburban industries were already finding their locations an asset. Lower land prices were attractive, there were fewer restrictions on developable land, [...]
Between the year in which Reading became a Third Class City and the year in which Reading’s prosperity is said to have reached its peak, the City underwent some major physical changes as it saw the years of its greatest progress. The underlying [...]
Development from the City Charter till 1874, when Reading received a new charter and became a City of the Third Class, progressed steadily and through the same forces which guided it prior to 1847. Population increased from 15,743 in 1850 to 23,162 in [...]
