Category: Exeter

  • “Lizzie Lincoln” House – The Real Story

    If you ask anyone about the “Lizzie Lincoln House”, including the internet, you will get varying results; mostly the regurgitation of conjecture based on legends. I more than anyone love a good ghost story, but what is more important to me than all else is that there be truth behind it. I put in the…

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  • Sunset Diner – Route 422

    Sunset Diner (Now Family restaurant) is located on route 422 in Exeter. It has been in business since at least the late 1950s.According to the ad below they had the best Dutch Cooking. Quite a bold claim!

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  • Bowl-O-Rama

    Bowl-O-Rama opened its doors in 1957; a dream of its five shareholders who bought the land and built the alley on Perkiomen Avenue in Exeter Township. It was home to local bowling leagues, social events and gatherings over the years. There was a bar and grille in the establishment as well as 40 bowling lanes.…

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  • Mary’s Dog House Luncheonette

    Mary’s Dog House Luncheonette was a food establishment in St. Lawrence. Some of the favorite menu items were the hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, steak sandwiches, Bar-B-Cue and of course milk shakes. It was open between 11 a.m. and midnight seven days a week. It was located along Boyertown Road. Looking at the photos, it…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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  • Seafood Shanty

    The Seafood Shanty was a popular restaurant in Berks County for 23 years. It was technically a chain, with other locations being around the greater Philadelphia area and into New Jersey. The first location in Berks was opened in Exeter township on Perkiomen Avenue. The second location was opened on Penn Avenue in West Lawn.…

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  • Perkiomen Avenue 1978

    Perkiomen Avenue – 1978

    Flash back to Perkiomen Avenue in 1978. Apparently this was an area prone to accidents. Popular places of the past pictured are King Hamburgers, Fecera’s Furnture, Sweet William Restaurant and Pathmark. Drivers Beware – Uncontrolled intersection, confusing entrances and exits, and the lack of a median strip make this five-mile stretch of the Philadelphia Pike…

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  • Kmart – 45 Years in Berks

    Kmart has been a staple nationwide big box store since the 60s. The company, originally called S. S. Kresge Corporation, dates back to 1899. It wasn’t until 1974 when it broke into the Berks County market, opening a store at the 94,500-square-foot Cumru Township location in Shillington Plaza. According to the Reading Eagle, it featured…

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  • Blockbuster Video Berks

    There were once four Blockbuster Video locations in Berks County, one being the above on Route 724/Lancaster Pike in Shillington. The others were at 4860 Penn Ave in Sinking Spring near Redner’s Market, 3262 N 5th Street Highway in Muhlenberg Shopping Plaza, and 3985 Perkiomen Avenue in Mt. Penn/Exeter. Blockbuster, was an American-based provider of home…

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Berks Nostalgia