Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Mount Penn, PA

Mount Penn is a small borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, covering just 0.41 square miles directly east of the city of Reading.

Mount Penn shares its name with the 1,120-foot mountain that rises just north of the borough and overlooks Reading; the peak, which was the site of a Hessian camp, is sometimes recognized as the southern end of the Reading Prong mountain group.

The borough sits in a small saddle between the peak of Mount Penn to the north and 900-foot Neversink Mountain to the south.

The community was long known as Dengler's, after George Dengler, whose tavern was a popular stopping place for teamsters hauling grain toward Philadelphia, and it was incorporated as the Borough of Mount Penn in 1902.

Mount Penn's first industry was a carriage factory opened in 1867, and Aulenbach Cemetery, established in 1851, still serves the borough.

The slopes above the borough form the Mount Penn Preserve, which includes Antietam Lake Park, the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower, and the Pagoda — Reading's seven-story Japanese-style landmark, completed in 1908 and sold to the City of Reading in 1911 for one dollar.

With 3,240 residents packed into 0.41 square miles at the 2020 census, Mount Penn had a population density of about 7,900 people per square mile.

Mount Penn had 1,300 households at the 2020 census, and about 31% of its residents were Hispanic or Latino.

Mount Penn's population peaked at 3,654 in 1940, declined to 2,883 by 1990, and has been growing again since.

Students in Mount Penn attend schools in the Antietam School District.