Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Reading Reading, KS

Reading is a small city in Lyon County, Kansas — not Pennsylvania — although it was named after Reading, Pennsylvania, because the townsite land was owned by McMann & Co. of that city.

Reading was platted in the summer of 1870 by a town company organized by James Fagan, an agent for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway lands, and its first post office opened in August 1870.

Reading was incorporated as a city in September 1890.

On May 21, 2011, an EF3 tornado tore through Reading, destroying at least 56 of the town's 110 homes and 14 of its 21 businesses, killing one person and causing more than $2.2 million in damage; the community rebuilt with FEMA help and most of the town had been rebuilt by 2023.

Reading's population peaked at 358 in the 1920 census, and the 2020 census counted 181 people in 80 households.

Reading sits on Highway 170 at the eastern edge of Lyon County, about fifteen miles northeast of Emporia, and it is part of the Emporia micropolitan area.

Reading is served by the North Lyon County USD 251 school district; Reading High School, home of the Lions, closed in 1980, and Reading Elementary School closed at the end of the 2017–2018 school year.

Reading has a humid subtropical climate, and the whole city covers only about 0.20 square miles.