photo by gusto

Since two sons of Pennsylvania founder William Penn founded this city in 1748, Reading (pronounced RED-ing) has grown into an industrial center and commercial hub in the agricultural Pennsylvania Dutch region.

Located on the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania, 63 miles northwest of Philadelphia, the city is noted for numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings, many of which are located in three historic districts. These are Callowhill, centered on the city’s commercial area; Prince, which preserves nineteenth-century worker housing, factories, and commercial buildings; and Center Park, with some of the city’s most impressive Victorian buildings.

During the Revolutionary War, Reading was a supply depot for the Continental Army, a hospital center, and prisoner-of-war camp. Today it produces electronic components, specialty steels, truck and car frames, textiles, and other products while also serving as a regional center for banking, insurance, and engineering services.

The Berks County Heritage Center in nearby Wyomissing is a complex of exhibits interpreting the region’s history. It includes the Gruber Wagon Works, one of the nation’s finest remaining examples of rural manufacturing, dating from 1882. There is also the C. Howard Heister Canal Center, which presents the story of the pre-railroad canal transportation era, and the Heritage Center, an information center where special events are held throughout the year. In the Deppen Cemetery are 67 marked and unmarked graves dating from 1808 to 1915 that were relocated here to save them from inundation after the construction of Blue Marsh Lake.

Also here is Wertz’s Bridge, a covered bridge built in 1867, and the 5-mile Union Canal Bicycle and Walking Trail, which follows the path once used for towing barges along the canal.

About 17 miles southeast of Reading is French Creek State Park, set amid forested hills and farmlands. It offers camping and rental cabins year-round, fishing, boating, hiking, and picnicking. It can be reached via US-422 and Hwy 345.

Reading, which has 78,400 residents, can be reached by I-176 or US-222, or by plane.