Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near West Reading Reading, PA

Reading was laid out in 1748 by Thomas and Richard Penn, the sons of William Penn, and was named for Reading in Berkshire, England.

Reading was incorporated as a city on March 16, 1847, and it serves as the county seat of Berks County.

Reading had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 census, which made it the fourth-most populous city in Pennsylvania, behind only Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allentown.

Reading has about 33,200 households, and its average household size of about 2.78 people is larger than the national average.

Reading gave its name to the Reading Railroad, one of the four railroad properties on the classic Monopoly board game, which hauled anthracite coal from Pennsylvania's Coal Region to East Coast markets.

By the 1870s the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad had grown into the largest corporation in the world.

Reading is known as 'The Pretzel City' because of its many pretzel bakeries, including Bachman, Dieffenbach, Tom Sturgis, and Unique Pretzels.

Reading was one of the first places in America where outlet shopping became a tourist industry in its own right.

The Pagoda, a novelty building atop Mount Penn that was originally meant to be a luxury hotel, has been the symbol of Reading for more than a century.

Reading is also home to Alvernia University and the Reading Public Museum.