Category: Culture

  • Exeter High

    Exeter High School

    Education in Exeter Township began with the erection of a Friends’ Meeting House in 1726. A few years later influential Friends, including the ancestors of President Lincoln and Daniel Boone established a more formal school which all children might attend on payment of a fee. This strictly English school was maintained until 1860. About this…

    Read more: Exeter High School
  • Antietam Valley Shopping Center

    The Antietam Valley Shopping Center was built in 1961 along St. Lawrence Avenue and Perkiomen Avenue on the edge of St. Lawrence and Mt. Penn. At the time of the picture above in 1969 various smaller stores included a state store, beer distributor, pastry shop, Merchants, insurance and more. Larger anchors included Woolworth’s and Pantry…

    Read more: Antietam Valley Shopping Center
  • Promise Unfulfilled: The Brief Life and Bizarre Death of Actor Robert Morris

    A couple weeks ago an email popped up in my inbox from a Vernon Gravely. He had cited BerksNostalgia.com as a source in a book he had recently published that was a biography of a Reading-born man named Robert “Bobby” Morawczynski, later known under stage name “Robert Morris”. Robert lived a short but interesting life…

    Read more: Promise Unfulfilled: The Brief Life and Bizarre Death of Actor Robert Morris
  • Robesonia High

    Robesonia High School

    The high School was built in 1916 and located at 129 W. Penn Avenue in Robesonia. Its history is one of the more elusive as there is almost no information about it online. If you have anything to contribute to the article, feel free to leave a comment below. In 1955, the boroughs of Wernersville,…

    Read more: Robesonia High School
  • Womelsdorf High

    Womelsdorf High School

    Womelsdorf High school was built in the 1930s and stood at the corner of South 3rd and West High Streets in Womelsdorf. Womelsdorf High’s school colors were azure blue and gold, and their mascot was the Lion. Sports at the high school included Boy’s Soccer, Basketball, Cheerleading, and Baseball. Other activities included Band, Orchestra, Chorus,…

    Read more: Womelsdorf High School
  • Lenhartsville Log Cabin Mystery

    An 18th century log cabin owned by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Berger of Allentown, and formerly located in the Blue Marsh Dam project area, has been moved to the rear of the old Lenhartsville Hotel. The Bergers donated the cabin to the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Culture Society in Lenhartsville. Above, Marvin Werley of Orefield stands…

    Read more: Lenhartsville Log Cabin Mystery
  • Wernersville High

    Wernersville High School

    Until 1858, the school at Hain’s Church was the only school available to residents of theWernersville area. The first grade school in the town was built in 1858. In the 1860s,another school was erected in the west portion of the town. In 1893 a two story building, serving as both an elementary and a high…

    Read more: Wernersville High School
  • Wilson High School

    The original Wilson High School building was erected in 1929 on Grandview Boulevard above West Lawn. The first school year started in Fall 1929 and housed 7th-12th grades. The name of the school was chosen in the hope that the life of the man in whose honor it was named, Woodrow Wilson, might serve as…

    Read more: Wilson High School
  • 6th & Penn Street Reading

    Pictured above is 6th & Penn Streets in 1949. On the immediate right is Pomeroy’s Department Store. A block north in the background is the Berks County Court House. All of the buildings between the photographer and the Court house were razed in the 1970s as a part of downtown Reading’s revitalization efforts. Can you…

    Read more: 6th & Penn Street Reading
  • Sinking Spring High

    Sinking Spring High School

    The Sinking Spring School was established on the plot of land next to the railroad tracks, between Vester Place, Columbia Avenue and Woodrow Avenue in 1894. Four additional rooms were added in 1902 and high school classes began being offered in 1904. Unfortunately, the original structure was gutted by a fire in the early Monday…

    Read more: Sinking Spring High School
Berks Nostalgia