The Reading Pagoda

 

Navigate back to the beginning of the month, and you'll find a post about the Grand View Ship Hotel, a local tourist attraction from western Pennsylvania, not in Pittsburgh.  This is another postcard dedicated to a tourist site that I visited in my childhood, though, since it was on the other side of Pennsylvania, only once.  (For the life of me I can't remember why we ventured to the other side of the Appalachians.)  So, the caption on the back of the card, "READING'S PAGODA, Reading's pagoda is situated on the southwest extremity of Mount Penn at the terminus of Duryea Drive.  This unique structure is Reading's top tourist attraction and at an elevation of 886 feet above sea level and 620 feet above the city of Reading, it affords its many visitors an exceptional birds-eye view of the surrounding hills and suburbs of Reading, Pennsylvania."  Now why someone thought building a seven-story Japanese-style pagoda in Reading, Pennsylvania was a good idea, well I'll never know.  Built in 1908, as a luxury hotel, eventually, it fell on hard times and was purchased by the city.  Unlike the Grand View Ship Hotel, which burned down, it's still there.  

The Grand View Ship Hotel

  

I used to visit this place when I was growing up.  I can remember that it was on the side of a mountain, and yes it was a pretty good view from the top.  We never stayed at the hotel, but we did eat in the restaurant and bought souvenirs in the gift shop.  The caption, "S.S. GRAND VIEW POINT SHIP HOTEL ON LINCOLN HIGHWAY 17 MILES WEST OF BEDFORD, PA.  ELEVATION 2,464 FEET.  GRAND VIEW SHIP HOTEL, at the most beautiful spot in U.S. Summit of Alleghany Mts. 17 miles west of Bedford, Pa. on Historic Lincoln Highway, overlooking 3 states and 7 counties.  Elevation 2,464 feet."  

Okay, I know that that is one messed up caption, but I've double-checked, and I have transcribed it as printed on the back of the card.  And by the way, I assume that people know that the hotel wasn't really a ship. It was an old roadhouse that had a ship's facade nailed on, made of wood, it eventually burned down. 

Is This the Niagara River?

I don't really know.  I have family in Canada, and when I was a child I often found myself being shipped off to Toronto, and the route we took went through Niagara Falls, both the Canadian and U.S. side of the river.  We would usually spend some time along the Niagara River, and there were plenty of concrete slab overlooks, at river's edge, with nothing but a flimsy, steel pipe guard rail keeping little kids from falling into the river.  Anyway, there's just something familiar about this photo.  If I'm right this picture is from the upper river above the falls.

Gobbler Bar

I don't have anything Thanksgiving themed in my collection, but I do have this lady standing outside the Gobbler Bar, Gift & Gourmet Shop.  Why am I thinking turkey jerky and cheese logs?  Stamped on the back, "PIXIE SNAP JULY 1951"