On the evening of Thursday August 22nd, 2024 it was reported by Berks Weekly that a building had collapsed on North 3rd street and that children may have been inside. Firefighters used thermal drone imaging to confirm that no one was buried in the rubble and that the children that had been seen playing inside before the collapse had made it out. It was immediately apparent that this was a turn of the 20th century industrial building of some sort, so I took my own drone down to get some shots and did the research to find the building’s history and how exactly it got to the point of collapsing within feet of a traveled railroad line.

Keystone Wagon Works / Company

In 1890 a deed transfer occurred for this property to a Keystone Wagon Company. That deed indicated it was a lot, so we know that the original sections of this building were constructed shortly after. If I had to guess, the oldest section was the length of the building along the railroad tracks, which includes the area that collapsed. The company was owned by a man named James A. Klees, who had grown up learning the trade from his father in Schuylkill County. In 1886 he sold the business he started there and came to Reading; erecting this plant for $11,000.

On August 21st, 1896 the Reading Times reported that a foreman of the repair department had his head crushed under a wagon. John Cromwell was repairing a dumping wagon which was suspended in mid-air by a strong chain. While standing underneath the wagon, Cromwell loosened a bolt and the body came crashing down on the frame and him, resulting in instant death.

In 1906 the Times reported that a carriage built for President Theodore Roosevelt had just shipped out of the Keystone Wagon Works.

Wagon business waned in the 20th century, as new motor automobiles were invented and increasingly manufactured. Like many wagon manufacturers at the time, Keystone saw this transition as an opportunity to jump onto the motor-car bandwagon. (see what I did there)

The April 23rd, 1907 Reading Eagle announced that Keystone Wagon Company had began manufacturing auto bodies. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to keep the business afloat and the company declared bankruptcy that November. The article states the company employed roughly 200 men at the time. In 1909 Keystone Wagon Works was sold to George Brooke Jr., of the wealthy Brooke family who made their fortune managing Birdsboro Iron Foundry Co. Under Brooke’s ownership it became the Keystone Vehicle Company.

In 1910, a fire broke out at the plant in what the article described as “the eaves of a three-and-one-half-story building along the Lebanon Valley railroad“. The article went on to say that “little damage was done to the building, but the loss to milled-out wagons was quite heavy, owing principally to water“. Perhaps just coincidence; that is the area that collapsed.

Keystone continued manufacturing wagons and automobile bodies until they merged with Daniels Motor Car Co., a Philadelphia-based company, in 1920. Daniel’s Motor Car Company utilized the North 3rd Street property briefly before selling it in 1924.

If the wagon and vehicle manufacturing part of this structure’s history interests you, this article dives deeper into it.

Reading Clothing Manufacturing Company

In 1924 the property was purchased by a Solon Bausher. Around 1930 he leased the property to the newly formed Reading Clothing Manufacturing Company. On November 10th, 1933 the Reading Times reported that the firm was enlarging the plant to double its floor space. They expected to employ around 700-800 people after this expansion. This expansion also allowed for a factory outlet store in the building. The aerial photo below from 1931 shows the structure as it appears today, so while the article linked about the expansion sounds like they were constructing more space, perhaps they were just utilizing more of the building.

In 1954 the Reading Clothing Manufacturing Company went bankrupt due to unpaid obligations and 1200 people lost their jobs at the plant. In 1958 a Hamburg-based lingerie manufacturer, Chadbourn Gotham, Inc., occupied the northern wing for operations. From this point forward the building would be rented out to multiple tenants at one time. One of the more recent and most well-remembered is the M.J. Earl Paper Company.

M.J. Earl Paper Company

The M. J. Earl Paper Co. has a long history in Reading itself. It was founded in 1842 by couple Margaret and James Earl. They were the local authority on wallpaper and paint. In 1890, the company erected their company store, the “M.J. Earl Building” at 525 Penn Street. Painted advertisements for wallpaper can still be seen on the west side of that building. M.J. Earl moved their manufacturing to 500 North 3rd Street in 1984.

Deterioration and Collapse

After the owner of M.J. Earl died in 2013 the business moved and the structure was sold to Bowen Construction and Real Estate Company. Judging by Google satellite history, the building has not been occupied since this ownership transition. In 2017 Bowen Construction sold the building to 500 N. 3rd Street LLC for $110k. This Pennsylvania LLC was filed by a Peter Gustis in December of 2016. In October 2017 a facebook page bearing the LLC’s name was created. On March 31st, 2018 a youtube video by the owner was posted under a “All Organic Medical Marijuana” youtube channel giving an elevator pitch of turning the property into a medical marijuana grow facility.

Gustis was present at a May 2022 determination hearing for the building to be added to the city’s blighted property list. The meeting minutes explain that Gustis owed the city nearly $13k in delinquent water charges even though the water had been turned off since 2014 and the meter was stolen from the building. Gustis also explained that electric had been turned off for the property and that he was denied a permit to turn it back on, which had thwarted his efforts to repair the building. When the board inquired about his intended use for the property, Gustis stated that originally he was focused on a marijuana grow facility but was currently considering a business resource center. Gustis added that during his application for a bank loan for the property, the Fire Marshal called the bank and suggested the denial of his application. He stated that he needed to obtain financing to make the required roof and brick repairs, which had been delayed due to interference by the Fire Marshal. Committee member Bealer stated that if the Electrical Inspector denied the permit, the denial was probably based around the plan for the electric work and he asked Gustis to consider seeking assistance from another electrician. The committee moved to add the building to the blighted property list.

On September 28th, 2023 another video about the property was posted on youtube by Gustis in which he announced plans for the building to be turned into affordable senior citizen housing. The video also states that the project would cost around $30 million. No improvements were ever made.

As the comparison slider below shows, the roof in the area of the building collapse had already caved in back in 2022. It appears more areas of the building will follow shortly if not taken down. It is worth noting that there is a daycare play yard within feet of the northern section of the building. Hopefully this gets taken down before something catastrophic happens.