Reading, PA I (3/11/2020)

Wednesday, March 11, 2020
On this trip to Buffalo, NY, we took more than a couple days to get there, and to get back. The goal was to visit institutions that have reciprocity with Tyler Arboretum, where we have a Steward Membership. After careful planning, what did we do? We left the Tyler Arboretum membership cards at home!
Fortunately, Tyler Arboretum responded to our telephone call by sending an email we could show at the reciprocal museums, stating our membership status.

Our first stop in Reading, PA was The Pagoda (1908),
commissioned by Walter A Witman, Sr to cover the scar
of his stone quarry on slopes of Mount Penn

The Pagoda was to be the start of a luxury resort, but the city
of Reading did not approve; eventually the building
went into foreclosure and was sold to the city for $1

The Pagoda has a gift shop and small museum (limited hours on the weekend), but is best known for its view over the city.

Bilingual signs, as the city is more than 50% Hispanic
of which a third are of Puerto Rican descent

Lindbergh Viaduct (1927, by Charles F Sanders) was the first
concrete viaduct in the country to be built on a curve

Lunch was at the Liberty TapRoom that features
craft beers and their signature Liberty Ales

A stop at the lower end of Penn's Common, land that was set aside for "the people in Common" by Thomas and Richard Penn in 1748.

President William McKinley (1905, by Edward Pausch)

Frederick Lauer Monument (1885), who
established himself as a brewing pioneer not only
locally, but as one of the early driving forces in
establishing what would eventually become
modern-day brewing throughout the country (KSS)

Ringgold Light Artillery Monument (1901)
dedicated to the "First Defenders" as the first
company to volunteer for service in the Civil War

Christopher Columbus (1925, by Vincenzo Miserendino),
donated by the Italian residents of the city (KSS)

The Volunteer Firefighters’ Memorial
(1901, by George Eisenbrown in granite) (KSS)

Bow anchor from the USS Maine
(sunk by explosion in the Havana, Cuba, harbor in 1898)

Remains of the Perkiomen Avenue Fountain (1891)

Reading is full of row houses

GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in the former Thomas A Willson & Co
factory (1871), the first in the country to manufacturer optical lenses

The company developed safety goggles and other safety equipment, and is said to have made the lenses for the eyeglasses of Mahatma Gandhi, and swimming goggles for Florence Chadwick who swam across the English Channel in 1950.

One of six buildings in the complex, this one houses the
Hot Glass Studio for glassblowing, hot sculpting and hot casting

Goggleworks also has a building dedicated to ceramics, and multiple artist studios with large windows.

Mosaic frieze

There was a small exhibit called The Cup.

With this interpretation of a cup by Kiyoshi Kaneshiro

Lampwork type cups by Keith Simpson

The gift shop offered several types of
glass straws; these are for bubble tea

Untitled (undated, by Keith Haring); the artist was born in Reading, PA

We had signed up for the once a week Wednesday tour, and it was essentially a private tour!

In a tour of the facility, we saw the many
factory fire doors; when the rope holding the weight
burns, the door automatically slides shut

There are walk-in safes on each floor to
house precious metals that may have been
required during manufacturing times

Artists-in residency often leave behind works, such as
All About Alice: Disenchanted Alice (2018, by Joseph Cavalieri) (KSS)

Next: Reading II.