Category: Towns

  • Holy Name High School

    Holy Name High School

    Holy Name High School’s history is directly entwined with the first catholic high school institution in Berks County; St. Peter’s Reading Catholic High. In the late 50s and early 60s enrollment at Reading Catholic High was declining, as it did not have the space or facilities it needed to attract new students. During this same…

    Read more: Holy Name High School
  • Central Catholic High School

    Central Catholic High School

    Luden’s mansion at 1400 Hill Road was purchased by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia in October of 1939 for $45,000. Renovations were made to make the home into a school, and on January 2, 1940 Central Catholic High School of Reading opened its doors. It was the second catholic high school in the city…

    Read more: Central Catholic High School
  • St. Peter’s Reading Catholic High School

    Before Holy Name, or even Central Catholic, there was another Catholic High School in the city of Reading. St. Peter’s Reading Catholic High, or more well known as just “Reading Catholic High” was located at 225 South 5th Street in Reading. St. Peter’s Reading Catholic High was founded in 1911 and in 1914, the first…

    Read more: St. Peter’s Reading Catholic High School
  • Reading Girl’s High School

    The first school building at 4th and Court streets was originally built in 1839, and occupied by an all-boys private school called the Reading Academy until 1853, when the boys public school program began. In September of 1857, thirty-eight girls began attending classes in an upper room of the Boy’s Academy building. The boys and…

    Read more: Reading Girl’s High School
  • Mount Penn High

    Mt. Penn High School

    The original Mt. Penn School building was the precursor to Mt. Penn High School and was built in 1885 at 24th and Grant Streets. By 1923 there were 8 elementary grades and 4 high school grades in the building with 240 elementary children and 70 high school students. It had been outgrown and a new building…

    Read more: Mt. Penn High School
  • Owls Grove

    The Apple Dumpling Festival

    The Apple Dumpling Festival dates back to the summer of 1953. It actually came to be as a merging of two events; Spring Township’s 5-day community summer fair and the West Lawn Owls Baseball Club 2-day fundraising event. The Owls raised money for their club by selling Apple Dumplings and playing modest games like bingo.…

    Read more: The Apple Dumpling Festival
  • Paper Mill Covered Bridge

    Paper Mill Road Covered Bridge

    The following images were taken in 1957 and I believe them to be depicting around the then-countryside of Wyomissing Borough. The first image has been identified, but the remaining two are up in the air. EDIT: The second image is now believed to be a covered bridge that sat in the area of the old…

    Read more: Paper Mill Road Covered Bridge
  • National Cleaners

    National Cleaners – Penn Ave – West Lawn – Then & Now

    A brief history from National Cleaners website: National Cleaners was founded in 1945 by Theodore Roeberg, father of current owners Richard & Mickey Roeberg. He purchased a small wholesale dry cleaning plant in Reading and was quickly the first in the area to offer six-hour dry-cleaning. He expanded quickly opening six small stores and in…

    Read more: National Cleaners – Penn Ave – West Lawn – Then & Now
  • Wyomissing Borough Streets – 1890, 1935 and Today

    Wyomissing Borough is a community that is rich with history and ties to industry in the late 1800s and turn of the 20th century. It was a community built by the founders and businessmen who ran the knitting mills; Henry Janssen and Ferdinand Thun. It became an opportunity to house their workers so they could…

    Read more: Wyomissing Borough Streets – 1890, 1935 and Today
Berks Nostalgia