Category: 2000s

  • A 100 Year Review of Berks – Happy New Year 2020!

    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…

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  • Colonial Hills Bowling

    Route 222 Expansion

    Many businesses along the Lancaster Pike were taken by eminent domain by the state in the early 2000s, when PennDot was making the final connection of 222 from 422 south toward Lancaster. Owners of businesses and homes that impeded the construction of the highway were offered compensation for their properties, though generally in situations like…

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  • Sno Kist Rt. 222

    Sno-Kist

    Sno-Kist was a beloved summer ice-cream place that was located along route 222, just south of Shillington. It was directly across the street from an Adult Video store called the RT. 222 News Outlet and was just north of Simotas Dairy Bar. The building had been an ice cream stand since the 1950s, always called…

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  • Penn View Motel

    Penn View Motel

    The Penn View Motel was part of a chain of nine establishments called Host Ways Motels. It was built in 1965, and along with the other 8 locations boasted the mid-century modern pyramid. It was located on the block between 2nd and 3rd Streets on Penn Avenue in West Reading. The striking blue pyramid would become a landmark of…

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  • Blue Marsh Ski Area

    Blue Marsh Ski Area

    Blue Marsh Ski Area was a small ski area located in Bernville, just 10 miles north of Reading, PA. The ski complex opened in 1968 as the North Heidelberg Ski Slope by a man named John H. Guenther Jr.. In 1986 Joseph M. Aichholz Jr. and four partners leased the ski area, and in 1987…

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  • Berks County Christmas – Day 19 – Christmas Snowstorm 2002

    On Christmas Day in 2002 we had over a foot of snow. Downed trees and wires caused power outages all over the county, and many went without lights for most of the night. Some did not get power restored for quite a few days. Do you remember Christmas Day ’02?

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  • The Shillington Diner

    The Shillington Diner can trace its roots back to the farmers market located at Museum Road and Lancaster Ave that opened in 1935. The Shillington Diner (later Restaurant) was built onto the market at 100 W Lancaster Ave and opened in 1948. In the beginning it just sold simple lunch foods for hungry customers visiting…

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  • Dempsey’s American Kitchen

    There was not a lot of information to be found on Dempsey’s American Kitchen online. Only this Morning Call article from 2005 about the restaurant location in Bethlehem being closed. Dempsey’s headquartered in Reading, but there were 14 locations eventually opened (and subsequently closed) around the region in the 60 years the company was in operation. The Lancaster…

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Berks Nostalgia