Pagoda | |
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| Location | 98 Duryea Drive, Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 40°20′9″N75°54′22″W / 40.33583°N 75.90611°W Coordinates: 40°20′9″N75°54′22″W / 40.33583°N 75.90611°W |
| Built | 1907-08 |
| NRHP reference No. | 72001093 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 7, 1972 |
The Pagoda is a novelty building, built atop the south end of Mount Penn overlooking Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. It has been a symbol of the city for more than a century.
Completed in 1908 at a cost of $50,000, this pagoda was intended to be the hotel/restaurant centerpiece of a luxury resort. When plans for the rest of the resort were abandoned, the 7-story wooden building on 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land was donated to Reading in 1911. It is now part of the Mount Penn Preserve, 1,595 acres (645 ha) of municipally-owned land. [2]
The Pagoda is 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, 50 feet (15 m) long, and 72 feet (22 m) tall. Perched on the edge of a cliff, 620 feet (190 m) above the city and 886 feet (270 m) above sea level, [3] it offers a 30-mile (48 km) panoramic view of the city and the surrounding countryside. [4]
Within the top story hangs a tocsin, a massive bell cast in Obata, Mie Prefecture, Japan, in 1739, and formerly installed in a Buddhist temple in either Ogose or Hannō, Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. Listed on the bell's sides in Japanese characters are the names of its 48 donors and a prophecy about the end of time. [5] The temple was closed in 1881, and later destroyed. [6]
Anti-Japanese sentiment was rampant during World War II, and there were calls to demolish the building. But it was restored in 1949, with the lower story and balconies rebuilt in stone. In 1960, neon lights were installed outlining its roofs. In the 1970s, the Japanese garden was restored, and Japanese cherry trees were planted around the building. LED lights were installed in 2008-09. A webcam on its third floor periodically records and publishes the weather atop Mount Penn. [7]
The Pagoda is owned by the City of Reading but is managed and preserved by the Foundation for the Reading Pagoda. It houses a small café and a gift shop, and functions as an icon for the City of Reading. The Pagoda is also the home of Pagoda Skyline, Inc., a non-profit volunteer organization formed in 1969 to help with the restoration and preservation of the Pagoda, the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower and Skyline Drive. [8]
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Berks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading.
Mount Penn is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,106 at the 2010 census. The borough shares a name with a 1,120-foot-high (340 m) mountain that rises to the north and overlooks the city of Reading. The peak is sometimes recognized as the southern end of the Reading Prong group of mountains.
Reading is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allentown. Reading is located in the southeastern part of the state and is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area, which had 420,152 residents as of 2020.
Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It is also a courthouse, serving as the seat of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and houses the Civil Trial and Orphans' Court Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.
The Union Canal was a towpath canal that existed in southeastern Pennsylvania in the United States during the 19th century. First proposed in 1690 to connect Philadelphia with the Susquehanna River, it ran approximately 82 mi from Middletown on the Susquehanna below Harrisburg to Reading on the Schuylkill River.
Mount Haguro is one of the Three Mountains of Dewa in the city of Tsuruoka, the ancient province of Dewa, Japan. As the lowest of the three mountains, standing at 414 m (1,358 ft), it is the only one that is accessible throughout the year.
One South Broad, also known as the Lincoln-Liberty Building or PNB Building, is a 28-story 472-foot (144 m) office tower in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The art deco tower, designed by architect John Torrey Windrim as an annex for Wanamaker's department store, was completed in 1932. Wanamaker's Men's Store opened in the first seven floors of the building, which is located a block from Wanamaker's main store, and was intended to rival European department stores with its size and selection. In 1952, the Philadelphia National Bank (PNB) bought the building and converted it into offices and banking space. Until 2014, the building's bell tower was decorated on all four sides with PNB's initials in stainless steel 16 feet (4.9 m) tall. Wells Fargo is the main tenant, occupying almost half the building. The former banking space at street level was converted to retail and restaurant space in 2000.
Bethel A.M.E. Church, now known as the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 119 North 10th Street in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1837, and is a 2½-storey brick and stucco building with a gable roof. It was rebuilt about 1867–1869, and remodeled in 1889. It features a three-storey brick tower with a pyramidal roof topped by a finial. The church is known to have housed fugitive slaves and the congregation was active in the Underground Railroad. The church is now home to a museum dedicated to the history of African Americans in Central Pennsylvania.
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The Quakertown Passenger and Freight Station is a historic train station and freight depot located at Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The two buildings were designed by Wilson Bros. & Company in 1889 and built by Cramp and Co. for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1902. The passenger station is constructed of dark Rockhill granite and Indiana limestone and is in a Late Victorian style. It is 1+1⁄2 stories tall and measures 25 feet wide by 97 feet 6 inches, long. It has a hipped roof with an eight-foot overhang. The freight station is a 1+1⁄2-story, rectangular stone block building measuring 128 by 30 feet. Also on the property is a large crane that was used for freight movement. The Quakertown station had passenger rail service along the Bethlehem Line to Bethlehem and Philadelphia until July 27, 1981, when SEPTA ended service on all its intercity diesel-powered lines. SEPTA still owns the line and leases it to the East Penn Railroad. Other towns, stations, and landmarks on the Bethlehem Line are Perkasie, Pennsylvania, Perkasie Tunnel, and Perkasie station.
The Mordecai Lincoln House is a historic house in Exeter Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania built c. 1733 by Mordecai Lincoln, the great-great-grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln. The house stands in the narrow valley of Hiester Creek on a 9-acre plot near the village of Lorane on Lincoln Road.
Harris Switch Tower, also known as HG Tower or Harris Tower, is an interlocking tower in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. The tower was built in 1929 by the Pennsylvania Railroad and remained in operation until it was closed in 1991 by Amtrak. Harris was purchased by the local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1992 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Renaissance Centre, formerly known as the Erie Trust Company Building and the G. Daniel Baldwin Building, is a 198-foot (60 m) skyscraper located in Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. Intended to be the headquarters for the largest bank in Erie, the Erie Trust Company Building was designed by the firm Dennison and Hiron in 1925. Completed in 1928 at the climax of the Roaring Twenties, the building's namesake bank failed in 1933 after the start of the Great Depression. It was renamed the G. Daniel Baldwin Building in 1943. In 1996, it became Renaissance Centre and was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Peter Wanner Mansion, also known as "Mount Penn Home" is a historic mansion located at Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The house is situated at the base of Mount Penn overlooking the city of Reading. It was built in 1889, and is a "T"-plan, 2+1⁄2-story, dwelling in the Late Victorian style. It is constructed of squared, rectangular limestone and features a stone segmental arched portal, broad front porch, and 4+1⁄2-story central frame tower. It was converted into apartments in the 1930s or 1940s.
The Womelsdorf Historic District is a national historic district located in Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Muhlenberg Brothers was one of the dominant architecture/engineering firms in Reading, Pennsylvania during the first half of the 20th century.
The Reading Company used two passenger railway stations in or near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad built a station on its Main Line in Exeter Township, on the opposite side of the Schuylkill River from Birdsboro. The Wilmington and Northern Railroad established a freight line to Birdsboro in 1870, but it was not until after its merger with the Reading Company that its passenger station was built in the borough.
Mount Pisgah Lutheran Church, also known in its early years as the First Lutheran Church and First English Lutheran Church and more recently as The Sanctuary on Penn, is located at 701 North Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The historic church was built by the city's first Lutheran congregation, which organized in 1837, and was its third house of worship. The former church, whose present-day name is The Sanctuary on Penn, is operated as a for-profit event venue.
The Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 280 are Pennsylvania State Game Lands in Berks County in Pennsylvania in the United States providing hunting, bird watching, and other activities.
Major General David McMurtrie Gregg is a monumental statue located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. The monument was designed by Henry Augustus Lukeman and consists of an equestrian statue depicting David McMurtrie Gregg, a military officer who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The monument was dedicated in 1922, several years after Gregg's death in Reading in 1916.
