The Pennsylvania collection
Berks County
43 places. A county full of stories.
Discover local legends, historic places and the stories of sites you can explore virtually.
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CemeteriesBelleman’s Church cemetery near Mohrsville
Adeline Baver was nineteen when she was murdered after attending a dance in Leesport on October 7, 1857. Her grave at Belleman's Church near…
Culture & landmarksBellemans Church Road beside Salem Belleman’s Church
Bellemans Church Road in Berks County was the setting for a striking nighttime sighting recounted by Reading Eagle columnist Charles J. Adams III in…
Bridges & railways · AI illustrationBowers Hotel
The Bowers Hotel in Berks County traces its history to the 1820s, before the surrounding village was laid out under the Bowers name. Later, the East…
Outdoors · Aerial viewBrinton Lodge
Brinton Lodge in Douglassville, Berks County, maintains a collection of reported encounters with a figure it calls the Dark Shadow. The operator…
Historic homesCharming Forge ironmaster’s house
Charming Forge, the former ironmaking community near Womelsdorf in Berks County, is home to a tragic romance involving ironmaster George Ege’s young…
OutdoorsDeitsch Eck
Johnny Ott, the proprietor of the Lenhartsville Hotel in Berks County, made himself famous as a self-styled “Professor of Hexology.” By 1951 he was…
Bridges & railwaysDreibelbis Station Bridge
Dreibelbis Station Bridge is a covered crossing over Maiden Creek near Lenhartsville in Berks County. Built in 1869, it is associated with a winter…
Emily’s Event Venue
Emily’s, the former Post Office Inn in Beckersville, takes its name from a girl in the building’s ghost stories. In 1997, restaurant owners Steve and…
OutdoorsFive Locks on the Schuylkill near Berne
Five Locks, near Berne along the Schuylkill River, takes its name from the canal infrastructure that once helped boats negotiate changes in water…
Historic homesFormer Hampden Firehouse
Chief Edward Dell died while answering a fire call in 1953. In the years afterward, firefighters at Reading’s Hampden station told stories suggesting…
Former Hampden Park Reservoir
Hampden Reservoir once held thirty million gallons above Reading’s Helltown neighborhood, enclosed by steep, stone-lined walls. The city removed it…
Former Lizzie Lincoln House
The Lizzie Lincoln House was a farmhouse on Lincoln Road near Birdsboro in Berks County. Jordan Kupper recalled seeing a woman at its window during a…
Former Mansion House Hotel and Durango’s Saloon
The Boyertown building later known as Durango’s Saloon began as a private house in 1859, became the William Penn Hotel in 1870 and was renamed the…
SchoolsFormer Reading Central Catholic High School
Reading Central Catholic High School occupied William Luden’s former Bon Air estate, including a carriage house used by the jazz band. A former…
Historic homesFormer Rhoads Opera House site
The Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown was the scene of a disastrous fire on January 13, 1908. The Pennsylvania historical marker records 170 deaths and…
Former Shartlesville Hotel
The Shartlesville Hotel was known to travelers on old Route 22 for its porch, bright sign and Pennsylvania Dutch meals. Its advertising promised the…
Former Topton House Pub
The former Topton House Pub, beside the railroad in Topton, had a reputation for a child spirit called Emma. Owners Gerry and Francine Gore knew…
Former Whit-Mar Inn
The Whit-Mar Inn on Pottsville Pike in Muhlenberg Township occupied a property that had served as a stagecoach stop and traded under names including…
Gring’s Mill Recreation Area
Gring’s Mill beside Tulpehocken Creek in Berks County has a legend about a woman called Mary and two troubled marriages. The story is associated with…
Haag Cemetery
Haag Cemetery overlooks Bernville in Berks County, across Washington Street from the separate St. Thomas burial ground. Its history dates to an 1867…
CemeteriesHuff’s Union Church Cemetery
Members of the Berks County Paranormal Association spent more than a year recording at Huff’s Union Church Cemetery while trying to identify voices…
John Lesher House
Colonel John Lesher and two partners established Oley Forge in 1744. Lesher’s stone house stood on the hillside above the ironworks, allowing him to…
SchoolsKutztown Area Historical Society
The Kutztown Area Historical Society occupies the former public school at South Whiteoak Street and Normal Avenue in Berks County. Built in 1892, the…
Bridges & railwaysLindbergh Viaduct above Pendora Park
Reading’s Lindbergh Viaduct curves above Pendora Park and Rose Valley Creek. Its high concrete arches are associated with reports of falling figures,…
OutdoorsLong Lane entering Lobachsville
Long Lane, on the approach to Lobachsville in Berks County's Oley Valley area, is associated with a woman said to wait beside the road for a soldier.…
SchoolsOld Main
Old Main at Kutztown University is associated with Mary Snyder, a student who died in 1895 shortly before her graduation. Her name became attached to…
Old Village Inn
The Old Village Inn in Morgantown, Berks County, is a sandstone building developed in sections around 1800 on the town square. Its…
Bridges & railwaysPerkasie Tunnel
The Perkasie Tunnel passes beneath Landis Ridge in Bucks County. Workers excavated it with hand tools and black powder in the 1850s, and it opened in…
Schools · Aerial viewPushman Cottage
Pushman Cottage is a former farmhouse on Albright College’s campus in Reading. Built around 1800 and acquired by the college in 1924, it served at…
SchoolsReading City Hall
Reading City Hall at 815 Washington Street occupies a building formerly used as a boys' high school. Its conversion to municipal use culminated in…
CemeteriesRhoads Opera House fire memorial
A shared grave at Fairview Cemetery in Boyertown holds twenty-five people whose remains could not be identified after the Rhoads Opera House fire of…
OutdoorsSacred Oak
The Sacred Oak is a large chinkapin oak beside Monocacy Creek in Berks County's Oley Valley. A tradition associated with the tree tells of a Lenape…
Inns & businessesSchaumboch’s Tavern
Schaumboch’s Tavern, also spelled Schambacher’s Tavern in local accounts, is an old roadside house on Hawk Mountain in Berks County. Its reputation…
Schuylkill Avenue rail crossing near Chestnut Street
The railroad crossing near Schuylkill Avenue and Chestnut Street in Leesport has two haunting traditions. One concerns a train that people can hear…
Shillington Social Club
Shillington Social Club shared its South Sterley Street building with the Keystone Fire Company for decades. The old hall served many community…
Bridges & railwaysSouth Baumstown Road near South Center Road
An old covered bridge near Birdsboro carried a road across the Schuylkill River before it burned in May 1926. A replacement crossing followed a…
Historic homesStokesay Castle
Stokesay Castle, on Mount Penn near Reading, was built in 1932 as an English-style country home for George Baer Hiester and his wife, Anne Hall…
Stouch Tavern
Stouch Tavern in Womelsdorf served travelers on the stagecoach route between Reading and Harrisburg. George Washington stayed there in 1793, and…
OutdoorsTulpehocken Valley in western Berks County
In the Tulpehocken Valley of western Berks County, a farmer was suspected of enlarging his property by moving the boundary stones between his land…
OutdoorsUnion Canal Lock 49
The ghost story near Union Canal Lock 49 outside Reading recalls the deaths of Louisa Bissinger and her three children on August 17, 1875. Louisa,…
Outdoors · AI illustrationWernersville
Nineteenth-century folklorist Charles M. Skinner recorded a buried-treasure story near Wernersville in Berks County. In his account, outlaws of the…
Bridges & railwaysWertz’s Covered Bridge
Wertz's Covered Bridge, also called the Red Bridge, crosses Tulpehocken Creek near the Berks County Heritage Center. Built in 1867, it now serves as…
Inns & businessesYellow House Hotel
Room C at the Yellow House Hotel near Douglassville has acquired a small tradition around a reading lamp beside a chair. Two guests, writing years…