Reading Health System history

In an 1829 “exploration” to the wilderness area beyond the Blue Mountains, List and Hiester discovered vast deposits of anthracite coal, acquiring parcels of land near Tamaqua.

For the years following the formation of the Medical Faculty of Berks County until 1848, there are no records of the activities of the group.

In 1849, the state meeting was held in Reading, with six delegates from the local Medical Faculty.

On February 23, 1850, the local group of doctors reorganized under the name of The Medical Society of the City of Reading and County of Berks.

Doctor Hiester was elected a vice president of the first body of officers of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania. (He would later be elected president of the state Society for the year 1853.)

There was no state meeting in 1861 “owing to the unsettled condition of the country from the war to suppress the rebellion. “

Doctor Israel Cleaver entered the Union Army in 1863 after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.

And under that name a Table of Fees was adopted on January 16, 1866.

The Reading Dispensary, the precursor to Reading Hospital, opened on January 27, 1868, in a small, rented space in downtown Reading.

A revived organization was formed in January of 1871, under yet another permutation of the name (Medical Society o/the County o/Berks), headed by Doctor William Moore as president.

The building was originally called the Griscom Mansion after William G. Griscom, vice president of the Reading Hardware Company, who purchased the property designated as 427-429 Walnut in 1872 from Mrs.

In 1873 he founded St Joseph’s Hospital, the first institution of its kind in Reading.

In 1880, member Doctor Israel Cleaver presented the subject of “Physical Culture” to the Society.

In 1883, Father Bomemann laid the cornerstone to the new facility at the northwest corner of Birch and Walnut Streets.

The new building was across Birch Street from the original hospital building and was dedicated by Archbishop Patrick John Ryan (Archbishop of Philadelphia) in 1885.

After outgrowing that space, The Reading Hospital opened at Front and Spring Streets on June 3, 1886.

The City of Reading continued to expand, numbering 58,661 people by 1890, as did the medical needs of an ever-increasing population.

Finally, in 1891, the Society settled in at the city’ 5 Common Council Chambers, at Fifth & Franklin, where it was to meet for the next ten years.

During the smallpox epidemic in 1893, Monsignor Bornemann, at the request of the City Board of Health, at a weighty expense, converted the stable on the Hospital ground into a place of refuge for the poor sufferers stricken with this loath some disease.

Construction began, and on September 27, 1895, another addition to St Joseph’s Hospital was dedicated and blessed by Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia.

In 1896, the Society inaugurated the first publication presented by the group.

It was dedicated on April I, 1900, as Medical Hall.

While the nursing program would begin in 1903, there was little room in the existing buildings, and the need for construction arose once again.

Archbishop Edmond F. Prendergast, Archbishop of Philadelphia, formally dedicated the latest addition that cost $60,000, on December 27, 1906.

Businessman George D. Horst-of the Nolde &Horst knitting mill family purchased the house in 1912, after which the building was referred to as the Horst Mansion.

There might well have been another tablet listing those who fought in the war against the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918; that was a total effort by doctors and nurses in Berks County. (The epidemic is covered fully in a special article beginning on page 163.)

By the time of Monsignor Bomemann’s death in 1924. the hospital had served the community for over 50 years, and administered care to over 40,000 patients.

At the conclusion of the convention, the local Society was honored by having two of its members elected to state office for 1925.

That same year, the hospital began a capital campaign of $400,000 for a six-story annex (D Building), which was dedicated in 1926.

Dedicated on October 30, 1957, this new building at 429Walnut Street, Reading, was the headquarters of the Berks County Medical Society for 35years.

In 1997, St Joseph’s Hospital acquired Community General Hospital.

In November 2006, the hospital abandoned the original St Joseph’s campus established by Monsignor Bornemann with the completion of a new $150 million hospital and medical office building on a 40-acre site in Bern Township.

The initial phase of the demolition work at the site of the old hospital began in February 2007 with the demolition of the adjoining property to the hospital.

The Citadel opened its doors to 2,100 students on August 31, 2010.