Category: Redevelopment

  • Turner Building – 100 South 4th Street

    There has been a bit of drama recently surrounding the property at 100 South 4th Street in Reading. The property was purchased in 2021 by Dream Ventures PA II LLC, front for Brooklyn-based developer Heights Advisors. This is the same investment company which currently owns the Luden Mansion/Central Catholic and the Santander office building at…

    Read more: Turner Building – 100 South 4th Street
  • Shillington Hotel & Bank

    This was originally posted on July 29th, 2024 to Berks Nostalgia’s facebook page, I have since added some more info and am reposting it here. Everyone likes to dump on Reading for its blighted properties (and it’s generally warranted) but lets put Shillington in the spotlight and examine the building on the southwest corner of…

    Read more: Shillington Hotel & Bank
  • What Happened to Reading, Pennsylvania?

    Without fail every time I post an old photo of Penn Street there are multiple comments asking, “what happened to Reading?” (and this is putting it nicely). Generally these comments are rhetorical and negative in nature, but sometimes I believe folks are genuine in wanting to know how we went from thriving industrial city of…

    Read more: What Happened to Reading, Pennsylvania?
  • D. S. & W. Hosiery Mill / The Great Factory Store

    D. S. & W. Hosiery Company filed a charter of incorporation in June of 1917. The three men who founded it – Daniel J. Driscoll, William W. Staudt, and George S. Weinerth, had extensive experience in the textile industry by the time they partnered together. In the charter the shares of the company were split;…

    Read more: D. S. & W. Hosiery Mill / The Great Factory Store
  • Mansion House Hotel – Penn Square

    On the southeast corner of 5th and Penn in Reading used to sit the Mansion House Hotel. Its foundation dated back to the late 1700s – the site of the first hotel ever constructed in the city. The Mansion House was once Reading’s largest and most well-known hotel. Many prominent leaders patronized the establishment, including…

    Read more: Mansion House Hotel – Penn Square
Berks Nostalgia