The Port of Reading History

Page 4

In 1873 Fredrick Getz and Sons opened a 2-acre plant along the Schuylkill Canal at the foot of Pine Street, with a 400-foot wharf fronting on the canal.  The company dealt with Italian and American marble. The Philadelphia & Reading, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington & Northern railroads were connected to the yards.

                                       (Fredrick Gets and Sons Marble Company)

Boos & Spangler blacksmith shop and steam-planning and turning mill was located on the Schuylkill Canal and Pine Street and listed in the 1856-57 City Directory.  

In 1838 Asa and Robert Packer purchased the boat-building business of Daniel Seiders on the Schuylkill Canal at the foot of the Lancaster Bridge.  They converted it into a warehouse and built the Packerack Hotel and operated a fleet of 76 canal boats. After moving to Mauche Chunk, they built canal boats and locks for Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.  In 1853 Asa Packer gained control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and the railroad greatly expanded. Asa Packer was a founder of Lehigh University; he ran for President in 1868 but lost to U.S. Grant. In 1869 the Bushong Paper Company erected the Packerack Paper Mill at this location where paper for books and plates were manufactured. These products were sold throughout the east coast.

Lancaster Bridge (Bingaman Street Bridge)

Permission was granted by the Penn Brothers to “Levan” to operate the rope ferry until the roofed wooden bridge was built in 1831. It was washed away by the freshlet of 1850 but immediately rebuilt.

The Charles V. Frame coal yard was located to the left of the Bingaman Street Bridge on the Schuylkill Canal.  By 1841 there were 5 coal yards located on the canal.  The Wm. F. Hendrick’s coal yard was adjacent to Frame’s.  Hendricks started as a mule driver on the Canal, then became captain, and eventually leased boats to bring coal directly to his yard.

D. H. Dotterer built his machine shop on the Schuylkill Canal above Third Street in 1837.  While at this address Dotterer and his employees built 10 locomotives, including the 11-ton 4-4-0 Lycoming and Reading for the P. & R.  In 1842 Dotterer moved his shop to the P. & R. shop at Seventh and Chestnut Streets.  In 1883 the George J. Eckert’s Fire-Brick Works relocated to this property and increased it to 3 acres and erected 3 kilns.  The annual production was 2,000,000 bricks.  The finished products were shipped by canal boat and rail.

George J. Eckert's Fire Brick Works 1883

Another large brick factory, the Reading Fire-Brick Works, was founded in 1845 and located between South Fourth and Fifth Streets on the Schuylkill Canal.  Occupying 2 acres, its annual production was 5,000,000 bricks with 60 employees, using clay obtained from New Jersey.

The Reading Gas Company was erected in 1849 at the Schuylkill Canal at the foot of Fifth Street.  For the first 35 years gas was produced by cooking bituminous coal in clay and iron retorts with coke and tar as by-products.  In 1885 it was leased to the Consumer Gas Company which produced gas in the new process of coke, steam and water.  The Reading Manufacturing Company (Cotton Mill) and Railroad shops were the first industrial customers.

The Jackson Rope Works, located on the Schuylkill Canal at the foot of Sixth Street, was opened and owned by Thomas Jackson in 1829.  Jackson manufactured and sold rope and twine to the Schuylkill Navigation Company and other canal boat owners.  Jackson’s rope works and supply store was situated at the first lock of the canal as it entered Reading.  The 1850 freshlet (flood) swept away the entire business and Jackson relocated to Eighth and Greenwich Streets.  

The City of Reading Pumping Station, built on the Schuylkill Canal at the foot of South Sixth Street in 1893 at the cost of $60,000, was situated on the site of the former Jackson Rope Works. Sewage was pumped to the disposal plant 1 1/2 miles below Reading on the western bank of the River. The plant was built at the cost of $76,000, and sewage was purified to 99 percent. The first two houses were connected to the system in 1906.  In the same year 14 miles of concrete pipe were installed to carry surface drainage and storm water to the Schuylkill River.

Originally known as Harbster Bros. & Co., the massive Reading Hardware Company was but a small building when it was opened in 1886 above the Canal at South Sixth Street by Matthanan William Harbster and William M. Griscom.

Reading Iron Works

The Keims, Whitaker & Co. was established in 1835 by Benneville Keim, George M. Keim, and Simon Seyfert at the southern end of the town by the canal and railroads. This plant became Seyfert, McManus & Co. in 1848; in 1862 it was incorporated as the Reading Iron Works.  By 1884 the Reading Iron Works and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad were the largest employers in Reading. In 1884 the Reading Iron Company consisted of:

• ReadingIron Tube Works, S. 7th Street & Schuylkill River 1848
• Sheet Iron Rolling Mill, Water & Spruce Street on the Island 1865
• Keystone Furnace, W. Greenwich Stree & Lebanano Valley Railroad 1889
• Roe Pudding Department, W Greenwich Corner Lebanon Valley Railroad
• Oley Street Rolling Mill, W. Greenwich & Lebanon Valley 1896
• Scott Foundry, 8th and Buttonwood (Founded in 1861 built by Lewis Kirk at old Reading freight station)