Reading celebrates 275th anniversary with parade on Penn Street

Oct. 1—Members of the Reading High School boys' basketball team waved and handed out candy as they led the city's 275th anniversary parade up Penn Street.

The 2023 state championship-winning basketball team served as grand marshals of the parade Sunday.

A celebration of the city's past and present, the spectacle began at Second and Penn streets and ended in City Park.

The team was followed by the Reading High cheerleaders and marching band and a trail of entries including the Exeter High School marching band, the Skyline Drive Corvette Club, Reading Pride, the Reading Fire and Public Works departments and several local organizations and businesses.

"I didn't realize how many organizations are here in the city," said Candice Newton, who watch the parade from Fifth and Penn streets with her son Tyler Weaver and granddaughter, Malaia Amaro, 4 months old.

Newton's husband, voice artist Hamilton Newton, emceed the parade with local radio personality Leah Tyler from a stand on Penn Square.

Although the Newtons live in Womelsdorf, they consider Reading their city, Candice Newton said. Both were born in Reading and while Candice was raised in Lancaster, Hamilton grew up living on North Third Street.

"This is our city," she said. "I love the fact that I see everybody coming together as a community."

Laura Reppert, anniversary celebration coordinator, echoed her sentiments.

Most people living in Berks County regard the county seat as their city, she noted.

"It's great to see groups from within the city and outside Reading come together to celebrate Reading's 275th anniversary," Reppert said. "It has really drawn everyone together."

Running just over an hour, the parade was the perfect length to keep spectators from becoming bored and left many wanting more.

Diverse entries included an elaborate float made by the students of Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center. The youths and their teachers walked behind their creation, a model steam engine belching real steam and pulling a train car. A banner on the float's skirt, decorated with old photographs of Penn Street, invited spectators to "Ride along with us on the RMCTC time train."

Perhaps the oddest entry was a motorcycle-drawn hearse containing the remains of the city's legendary Stoneman Willie, hidden from view within an embellished wooden casket.

Willie, the mummified body of a prisoner, has been kept at Theo C. Auman Funeral Home, 327 Penn Street, since 1895. The body of the deceased, whose real name is not known, was displayed publicly in the last century, drawing the attention of curious gawkers and terrified children.

Auman's plans to lay Willie to rest Saturday with a proper burial.

The hearse and casket were the draw for Alan Clouser, who pedaled his bike from his home in West Reading into the city to catch the parade.

"I wanted to see Stoneman Willie," said Clouser, who first viewed the mummified remains as a child and later during a public showing.

Willie's hearse was led by a New Orleans-style jazz band headed by local composer and musician Chris Heslop.

Local historians George M. Meiser IX and his wife, Gloria Jean Meiser, co-authors of the Passing Scene series of books on Reading and Berks history, rode in a limousine behind the funeral cortege.

Meiser said he was honored to take part in the event.

"It was like the old-fashioned parades," he said. "Perfect strangers waved with enthusiasm as we went up through (Penn Street)."

Meiser said he was slightly disappointed at the turn-out, a thinner crowd than the one typically seen at the city's annual holiday parade.

"But they had a descent turnout," he said. "I thought the whole thing really went off very well. The people watching were very enthusiastic."

Following the parade many of the spectators made their way to City Park for the third annual Berks Cultural Diversity Festival. Organized by Bring the Change, the festival featured cultural music and dance, ethnic foods, games of various traditions, and educational information and activities exploring the city's diverse cultures.