Pendora Park - Reading, PA - Olmsted Designed Parks on Waymarking.com

Pendora Park opened in 1907 as an amusement park, possibly an ill conceived idea because there was another amusement park just a few miles away. It was pretty popular but in 1911, much of the amusement park was the victim of a fire, something which seemed to be very common in those days in the city of Reading.

Around 1920, the city decided that something needed to be done with the land upon which Pendora Park had existed. It took until 1922 for the funds to be raised and the debates about the plans for the park to be over and a decision was made to construct a public park with a pool.

It took some work and some research but I was finally able to find the listing of Pendora Park in the eastern portion of the city of Reading as an Olmsted project as shown here (visit link) and (visit link) .

I wanted some additional corroboration and found a book that had very limited distribution about the history of Pendora Park. The book is entitled "Pendora, Forgotten Trolley Park of Reading" by Paul A. Druzba. On page 185 of the book is a paragraph stating:

"One of the most promising and sensible of the city's pool proposals came in 1926, when they received the results of a plan for the "Development of Pendora Park into a Beautiful Playground", which was published in the Reading Eagle (the local newspaper) on September 11.

The report, prepared by Olmsted Brothers landscape architects of Brookline, Massachusetts, was well thought out, extensive, yet not overly grandiose in scope. The plan, which would require adding some adjacent land, would increase the parks size to 16 acres in all."

Just a note to add that all of the aspects of the Olmsted plan became reality with the exception of the pool which was not built.

Unfortunately, little remains of the Olmsted plans today. Pendora Park is a city playground. There is a fountain in the park which may have been part of the Olmsted design but I can find nothing to verify it.

Type of Public Space: 01 Parks, Parkways & Recreation Areas Job Number: 07605 Architect: Source says Olmsted Brothers

Visit Instructions:
There are no specific visit requirements, however telling about your visit is strongly encouraged. Additional photos of the park to add to the gallery are also nice, but not required. Pictures with a GPS or you in them is highly discouraged.

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