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 [...]
Crossroads attract settlers, and five miles northeast of Reading five roads intersected: roads to Reading, to Kutztown, to Friedensberg, to Leesport, and one to Tuckerton and beyond. To many folks it was known as “Five Points,” a natural place to build a hotel. [...]
After World War II, GI’s came home to a dire housing shortage; little had been built during the years of the Great Depression and war. The federal government had foreseen the problem and a program was already in place that would guarantee financing [...]
St. Lawrence Luncheonette was a large and popular eatery that once hosted customers at 535 Penn Street. It was owned and operated by the St. Lawrence Dairy. Its ice cream and soda was understandably the most popular part of this operation. Below: Interior, [...]
The roots of Laureldale go back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1902 Edward Lauter purchased part of the Henry Gass farm north of Hyde Park and east of the East Penn Railroad, called it Rosedale and parceled it off into [...]
