Skyline Boulevard - Reading, PA
Posted by: 
Janila
N 40° 20.184 W 075° 54.327
18T E 423090 N 4465489
Skyline Boulevard, or, as it is known today, Skyline Drive, crosses the top of Mount Penn in Reading, PA.
Waymark Code: WMZ0FT
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/20/2018
Views: 0
1932, the Depression, and there were many unemployed people in the city of Reading. The City had a brainstorm and this is the story of how the road across the top of the mountain was built. Today, the rock wall which was constructed on the side of the road still remains but is in crumbling condition in many places.
Construction of Skyline Boulevard, as it was initially called, began on February 1, 1932 and was completed and opened on June 24, 1935. The roadway and "Skyline Drive wall" was initially funded by the City and County and later by the Federal government under the Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his creation of the W.P.A.
Built by the unemployed of Reading as the City's contribution to the support of the unemployed, the boulevard represented the largest public works relief project undertaken in Berks County. The project provided employment for thousands of unemployed workers. Workers were paid 40 cents an hour or $16 a week.
The first section of the Reading's Skyline Boulevard, from the Pagoda to the tower, was formally dedicated on July 1, 1932. At 7:29 PM, a car driven by Mayor Ermentrout broke a white silk ribbon stretched across the new boulevard just north of the Pagoda and led a parade of cars along the boulevard to the tower where a dedication ceremony was held. Lebert H. Weir, national authority on parks of the National Recreation Association, was the chief speaker at the dedication ceremony. L.H. Weir said "the work done here is of a rank among the highest in the country."
The mayor paid tribute to the men who worked on the mountain, and he congratulated the poor directors upon their policy of work rather than charity. Mayor Heber Ermentrout had high hopes for the highway in the sky. "I cannot help but feel that with this improvement the coming generations will be privileged to enjoy the beauties of the mountain their parents enjoyed in the years gone by," he said.
The inscription on the stone reads:
Skyline Boulevard
Dedicated by
The city of Reading
To those citizens who in a period
of economic depression, labored to
build this boulevard.
1932 - 1935
Mayor Heber Ermentrout
Councilmen
William J. Smith George M. Yocom
Jesse George William C. Hoverter
Frederick A. Muhlenberg Emil I. Muebling
John H. Rorke
Superintendent of Construction
Harry P. Sullivan