Happy New Year Berks County! Not only is it a new year but also the beginning of a new decade. As we leave behind the 2010s, let’s look back on the beginning of the last 10 decades, and some of the events that we experienced together as a community during them. The past is important and sometimes comforting, but it is also important to look forward. There is so much more nostalgia yet to be made!
1920
Notable Events from this Decade
- The Strand Theatre opens February 1920
- The roots of General Battery can be traced to 1921, when Bowers Battery & Spark Plug Co. was founded in Reading by Clarence P. Bowers
- Sinking Spring Dairy Company established in 1924
- The Boston House Restaurant opens
- Park Theatre opens on Penn Street in 1926
- Lake Ontelaunee created by damming Maiden Creek in 1926
- Nolde Forest Mansion built in 1926
- Met-Ed’s headquarters built downtown in 1927
- Croll and Keck opens beautiful downtown store in 1927
- Linette Candies founded in 1927
- Socialist Park created in 1929
- Great Depressions begins 1929
1930
Notable Events from this Decade
- The Abraham Lincoln Hotel opens its doors May 1930
- Farmers-Kissinger Market sues the city 1930
- The borough of Laureldale established in 1930, first portion of 5th Street completed in 1931
- Buttonwood Street Bridge built in 1931
- Embassy Theatre opens in 1931
- Local AM radio station WEEU broadcasts for the first time New Years Day 1932
- Reading Brewing Company re-opens in 1934 after 6 year hiatus due to prohibition
- B&J Saylor grocery store suffers fires in 1933 and 1935
- Berkshire Knitting Mill strike turns violent and ends with injuries and one fatality in 1936
- The Reading Airport opens to public in 1938
- WWII begins in 1939
1940
Notable Events from this Decade
- Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941
- Brown’s Diner in West Reading featured in Life Magazine’s June 1942 edition
- Reading elects Socialist Party Mayoral candidate J. Henry Stump, it would be the party’s last victory in 1943
- US drops atomic bombs on Japan and WWII ends in 1945
- Tony Moran, a Reading mob boss murdered in the beginning of the height of organized crime and corruption ruling Reading in 1945
- The beginning of the decline of the Berkshire Knitting Mills in 1945
- Koziar’s Christmas Village starts with humble beginnings in 1948
- Frances Nolde learns to fly and earns Colonel rank in the 40s, wins inaugural All Women’s Transcontinental Air Race–Powder Puff Derby– from LA to Miami in 1949
- The Reading Drive-In Theatre opens in 1949
1950
Notable Events from this Decade
- Korean War begins in 1950
- Carsonia Park closes for good Labor Day of 1951
- Stoudt’s Restaurant in Sinking Spring opened in 1951
- Reading Municipal Stadium hosts its first ball game 1951
- In 1952, the Wilkes-Barre Indians, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians relocated to Reading to become the Reading Indians
- Rosedale Knitting Mill shuts down in 1952
- Reading’s Trolley service comes to and end in 1952
- Schell’s opens on 5th Street in 1952
- Ritz Theatre demolished
- Two Guys Department Store opens it’s location on Lancaster Pike in Shillington
- Shillington High School graduates last class in 1953
- Queen of the Valley Diner on Penn Ave between West Lawn and Wyomissing opens in 1954, has a fire in 1959
- Sinking Spring Drive-In opens in 1955
- Hurricanes Connie and Diane hit back to back causing damage & flooding in 1955
- 128-year-old Berks County Almshouse demolished in 1957
- Alvernia College founded in 1958
- First known as Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute, Penn State Berks became part of the Penn State system in 1958
- Snowstorm dumps 50″ on snow on Morgantown in 1958 (you read that right)
- Towel Hotel razed in 1959
1960
Notable Events from this Decade
- Then-Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy visits Berks, Sept 16th, 1960
- Fleetwood Hill Climb starts in 1961
- Maple Grove Raceway opens in 1962
- Galen Hall Resort burns to the ground, Palm Sunday 1963
- Ye Olde Spring House opens in Sinking Spring, in former historic Academy building in 1963
- President Kennedy assassinated in 1963
- Dutch Colony Motor in on 422 in Exeter opens in 1964
- Fox North Theatre in Muhlenberg opens in 1964
- West Reading Hotel closes its doors in 1964
- Penn View Motel built in 1965
- The “Road to Nowhere” is built in 1962 and expanded on in 1968
- Boscov’s West suffers a fire in 1967
- Sunshine Brewing Company closes its doors in 1968
- Popular Crystal Ballroom in Carsonia Park is the victim of arson in 1968
- Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon in 1969
- Christmas Day 1969 – Over a foot of snow falls on Berks
- Dreamland Park Murders in 1969
- West Reading High School graduates its last class before merging with Wyomissing in 1969
1970
Notable Events from this Decade
- The Berkshire Mall opens in 1970
- Rabbit, Run (based on John Updike novel) filmed in and around Reading in 1970
- Tom Sturgis Pretzels moves further down Lancaster Pike
- Embassy Theatre suffers fire 1970
- Leows Colonial Theatre demolished in 1970
- The Crystal Restaurant ravaged by first fire in 1970, then second in 1980
- Weiser Lake or “The Mine Hole” filled in in 1971
- Reading’s iconic Pagoda added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972
- Hugo’s Disco opens on 5th Street in 1972
- Hurricane Agnes ravages Berks – June 22, 1972
- Blue Marsh Lake Project finished in 1973
- Gruber Wagon’s moved from the original Works location 1974
- The 600 & 700 blocks of Penn Street downtown are razed for “urban renewal” in 1974
- West Lawn Elementary School demolished
- 222 Drive-In Theatre opened
- Penn Square Revitalization project completed in 1975, Penn Mall plans never realized
- Now famous artist Keith Haring graduates from Kutztown Area High School in 1976
- Train Derailment and car pile-up in Wyomissing in 1977
- In 1978, the last Reading fair was held on the Muhlenberg Fairgrounds site before the Mall was built
1980
Notable Events from this Decade
- The Fairgrounds Square Mall opens in 1980
- SEPTA ceases train service to Franklin Station 1981
- The Gypsy Moth invasion peaks in 1981
- Gadget’s is upstairs at the Berkshire Mall between 1982-1984
- Old Wyomissing Highschool building razed in 1984
- Downtown Pomeroy’s closes its doors for good in 1985
- Foscone’s Goony Golf goes out of business
- Rain causes major flooding in 1987
1990
Notable Events from this Decade
- Kerry Collins, NFL quarterback graduates from Wilson High School in 1991
- Reading Station Outlets opened in 1992 and failed by the end of the same decade
- Penn Square Comfort Stations are permanently closed and covered with renovations to the square in 1993
- “Storm of the Century” blizzard of 1993
- Seafood Shanty closes after bankruptcy in 1993
- 4+ Magnitude back-to-back Earthquakes rocks Berks in 1994
- Japanese Beetles covered everything in the summers of ’95/’96
- Moss Street Factory Outlet fire 1996
- Blizzard of 1996
- Invasive Stinkbug first shows up in 1998
- Tornado rips through Lyons in 1998
- The Hitching Post Restaurant razed in 1999
- Doe Mountain rebrands to Bear Creek in 1999
2000
Notable Events from this Decade
- Y2K Scare
- Santander Arena (then Soverign Center) built on 700 block Penn Street, and becomes home to Reading Royals hockey team in 2001
- 9/11 Terrorist attacks in 2001
- Shillington Diner & Farmer’s market is razed to make way for a Wawa in 2001
- Christmas Day 2002 storm dumps over a foot of snow on Berks
- Businesses along Lancaster Pike in Shillington taken by eminent domain to make way for new bypass build
- Iconic “Apple Dumpling Festival” no longer held at Owls Grove after 50 years in 2003
- Blue Marsh Ski Area closes down in 2005
- Berks County Hockey Complex closes in 2005
- In 2006, after over 40 years since the project’s beginning, route 222 is finally connected and completed making travel from Lancaster to Allentown a straight shot
- Worst Flooding since Agnes in 2006
- Local Family stars in reality television show, Jon & Kate plus 8 premiers in 2007
- Locally born Taylor Swift has her first chart-topping song released in 2007
- Gary Redner, local grocery store chain VP is murdered in his front yard in 2008. Case still unsolved
- M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender scenes are filmed by the Pagoda in 2009
2010
Notable Events from this Decade
- Blockbuster Video parent company files for bankruptcy and closes Berks locations
- KidSports and Boscov’s West demolished in 2010
- Local woman goes viral after falling into a fountain at the Berkshire Mall in 2011
- Hottest temperature record broken with 106°F in July 2011
- Reading Phillies change their name to “Reading Fightin Phils” in 2012
- Reading Royals win their first Kelly Cup in 2013
- Invasive Lantern Fly is introduced into United States through shipment of rock from Asia to Berks County in 2014
- Hail Storm rips through Berks, causing mass damage in 2014
- Snowmageddon 2016 blizzard
- Reading High School wins Boys Basketball PIAA State Championship in 2017
- Berks Nostalgia created in 2017
- Vanity Fair Outlet/Berkshire Knitting Mill buildings torn down in 2017
- Bon-Ton, Berkshire Mall anchor since 1987 files for bankruptcy and closes in 2018
- Sears goes bankrupt, 2nd anchor store to close in Berkshire Mall in 2019
- Train derailment happens again in 2019, almost in the same location as in 1977
- Kmart declares bankruptcy and closes all locations, including 45 year old store along Lancaster Pike in 2019
- Sly Fox Brewing revives Reading Premium Beer in 2019
- Reading Eagle Company goes bankrupt after 150 years in business in 2019
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