The earliest years of the Reading Fair were held at City Park and then a plot on North 11th street. During the early 1910s the Berks County Agricultural Society was tired of leasing the land at North 11th Street and wanted a more permanent location they could call their own.
On April 3rd, 1914 it was announced in the Reading Times that they had narrowed it down to three locations – West Wyomissing, Cumru Township and North 11th Street.… Read Full Article
In 1901 the Junior League was founded in New York City as the Junior League for the Promotion of Settlement Movement. It was founded within a time of great social unrest and an emerging feminist movement. On August 6th, 1923 ten wives and daughters of Reading’s elite industrialists met in the living room of Mrs. Mary Griggs Barbey with the intention of joining their ranks.… Read Full Article
The Berks County Trust Company was organized in October of 1900. The founding members accumulated a capitol stock of $125k. The company initially rented J.K. Grant’s new building at southeast corner of Sixth and Washington Streets to operate out of. The Berks County Trust Company was chartered on November 16th, 1900 and commenced operations in January of 1901. The company’s first President was Christian H.… Read Full Article
Miller’s is an establishment that has eluded me for the entirety of my six-year “career” chronicling beloved places of the past in Berks County. I came to know of the name through my Mother telling me of her own memories at the Miller’s Drive-In which was located in Sinking Spring at 4700 Penn Avenue. Today Hollywood Cleaners stands in its place, but boasts the same retro sign structure.… Read Full Article
The July 4th, 1876 Reading Eagle ran a few interesting articles on its front page about Independence Day observations and celebrations. The first article was titled, “A Peep at Reading 100 Years Ago” which described the town at the time of our country’s founding. Reading was already nearly three decades old at the onset of the Revolutionary War. Berks County was only slightly younger being founded in 1752.… Read Full Article