A history of Mount Penn,
since 1800
Postcards, papers and photographs of Mount Penn from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusMount Penn is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,240 at the 2020 census. The borough shares a name with a 1,120-foot-high (340 m) mountain that rises to the north and overlooks the city of Reading. The peak is sometimes recognized as the southern end of the Reading Prong group of mountains. It was the site of the Mt. Penn Hessian Camp.
Mount Penn was established in 1800. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 3,106 to 3,240 (+4%). Half of its homes were built before 1943.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Mount Penn yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Mount Penn’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view1940 Census Enumeration District …, 1880: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Mount Penn, decade by decade
1920s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as 1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Pennsylvania - Berks County - Mount Penn - ED 6-58, ED 6-59, ED 6-60 (1880) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.