The Port of Reading History

Page 3

Proceeding northward along the canal…

The large Reese gristmill located at Giles Lock on River Road near Bingaman Street was established in the early 1800’s.  Many a ton of the Oley farmers’ wheat was turned into flour for shipment on the Canal. In 1876 it was purchased by E.W. Fox, owner of the Reading Glass Company.  The company produced screw- top carboys and demijohns, mineral, soda, and wine bottle jars, flasks and bottles.  It used both canal and city water for manufacturing.

In 1860, Jacob and Herbert Bushong established the Keystone Furnace Co. on 20 acres of land near the Lebanon Valley Railroad; its chief product was pig iron.  The Bushong family was connected with iron companies, paper mills, land development, and banking. The furnace was acquired by the Reading Iron Works in the 1890’s which retained the name Keystone Furnace and listed it in the Forge Department.

The Union Foundry was founded in 1872 by John Joseph Conrad Keppleman, a native of Germany, on 6 acres of farmland at Exeter and River Road adjacent to Haines Lock.  In 1889, the foundry was purchased by James Harvey Carpenter and a group of investors and named Carpenter Steel.

In 1884 the undeveloped farmland south of Carpenter Steel adjacent to the Canal and the Pennsylvania & Schuylkill Valley Railroad and the Schuylkill & Lehigh Railroad was owned by Herbert Bushong who sold it to John Mellert and sons. They erected the Reading Foundry to cast iron, gas and water pipes. In 1887, the foundry was purchased by her M.J. Drummind Iron Works.  In 1907 the plant was dismantled, and in 1925 the Parish Manufacturing Company became the property owner.  It later became known as the Parish Press Steel Company and then the Dana Corporation.

South of the Penn Street Bridge

The area south of the Penn Street Bridge was heavily developed along the canal and the adjacent streets.

Dr. Benson’s large-brick, steam grist mill and wharf are shown in an 1837 drawing of Reading as located immediately south of the Penn Street Bridge.  Dr. Lott Benson received his degree from Jefferson Medical School but also partnered in an iron business with Eckert & Brothers and owned Reading Steam Heat. Benson’s was formerly Wendy Tavern, erected by John Wendy about 1817.  “It had the largest room in town and many young people went there to dance.”  Wendy was the first collector of tolls at the new covered Penn Street Bridge.  The grist mill and the terra cotta were demolished in 1884 for the P.S.V.R.R. freight yard, stretching from Penn to Franklin Streets.

F. S. Fox Terra Cotta and Stove Brick Works was founded in 1856 and located on 2 acres of land between the canals at the foot of Franklin Street at the Reading Guard Lock. This lock did not lift or lower barges but served as lock gates to control water flow in the canal.  Products included a wide variety and size of fire bricks.  Terra Cotta products included water, drain, and sewage pipes, ventilators, pedestals, vases, brackets, statuary, and artistic and plain wares. Two down-draft kilns were fueled by coal.  This large brick building was formerly the hotel and store of E. Davis.

The Reading Scale and Machine Works opened in 1880 on the Schuylkill Canal between Grape and Chestnut Streets to manufacture scales, pulleys, and boilers tanks and to perform repairs.  Located in the former Penn Hardware Shop, it was originally known as Peipher Boiler Works.

In 1891, the Hercules Paper Company was opened on the Schuylkill Canal and Chestnut Street.  It manufactured commercial paper bags for groceries, confectionary, shirts, cigars, and tobacco use. Interestingly, in 1898 there were 110 cigar factories in Reading employing 3,200 workers.

Orr, Painter & Co., founded in 1868 by Charles S. Prizer, was located on the Schuylkill Canal between Chestnut and Spruce Streets.  The factory manufactured stoves, heaters, ranges, and furnaces which were sold throughout America and abroad.  The company merged with Mellert Foundry and Machine Shop in 1879 and produced iron and tin work, fire hydrants, lamp posts, and car and railroad castings.  It was eventually renamed the Reading Stove Works.

The Eagle Foundry, Bertolet & Company, and White Swan Tavern were demolished in 1865 and replaced by the large Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad Station.

Penn Hardware Company purchased the Bright Lerch & Co. in 1883 on the Schuylkill Canal near Spruce Street and converted it into a factory and warehouse.  This building had several different names throughout the years, including the Reading Car Wheel Company which opened in 1898.  Each day the 50-employee factory produced 225 railroad wheels weighing 350 to 700 lbs.