Category: West Wyomissing
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How the Fairgrounds almost ended up in West Wyomissing
Read more: How the Fairgrounds almost ended up in West WyomissingThe 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…
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Grand Blvd – Wyomissing’s Casualty of the Bypass
Read more: Grand Blvd – Wyomissing’s Casualty of the BypassI had previously written a post about the effect the construction of the bypass had on West Wyomissing. The stories about house-moving intrigued me due to the fact that my mother and her family lived on Girard Avenue at that time and got to witness the spectacle firsthand in the early 70s. Yet there was…
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The Apple Dumpling Festival
Read more: The Apple Dumpling FestivalThe 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.…
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Wellers Tavern / Rasputin’s
Read more: Wellers Tavern / Rasputin’sWellers Tavern (later Rasputin’s) was located on 2275 Reading Ave, right off of West Wyomissing Boulevard. It was a popular local haunt that had entertainment almost any night of the week. I can find no information online about when Wellers Tavern opened, so if you have any insight please comment below. This place was notably…
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Sturgis Pretzel Co – Portland Ave – Then and Now
Read more: Sturgis Pretzel Co – Portland Ave – Then and NowVictor Brand Sturgis Pretzel Company – There were Sturgis Pretzel Bakeries located in Lititz, Wyomissing and West Wyomissing (the above pictured location) opened under the Sturgis Pretzel Co. name, but these were opened and ran by sons and grandsons of the original Tom Sturgis. Source
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Queen of the Valley Diner
Read more: Queen of the Valley DinerThe Queen of the Valley Diner was opened in 1954 at 1730 Penn Avenue in West Wyomissing, and sat just down from the old Iron Bridge that crossed the railroad. It was owned and operated by Charles and Gloria Schwambach, who also owned the Hitching Post Restaurant, also on Penn Avenue but further down in…
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West Wyomissing House Relocation
Read more: West Wyomissing House RelocationIn the early 1970s (’70/’71) , houses were relocated in West Wyomissing to make way to the future Route 222 to be built. My mother was a kid living on Girard Avenue at the time, and remembers the houses from Reading Avenue and Cleveland being moved to both sides of the most eastern section of…
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Old Iron Bridge Connecting Wyomissing & West Lawn
Read more: Old Iron Bridge Connecting Wyomissing & West LawnThis iron bridge was on 422/Penn Ave connecting Wyomissing and West Lawn. It was built in 1926 and replaced an older, smaller iron pony-truss bridge. Only two “overhead bowstring bridges” like it are known to have survived in the state of Pennsylvania.* One ended up being placed on the Horseshoe Trail at Scarlets Mill in…
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West Wyomissing Foot Bridge
Read more: West Wyomissing Foot BridgeIn West Wyomissing, there used to be a pedestrian foot bridge that connected Morwood Avenue to Penn Avenue. It was built by the Reading Railroad in the early 1920s to help commuters who lived in West Wyo to get to the trolly lines on Penn Ave easily. A nearby establishment was Queen of the Valley Diner…
