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FOUR News-Bits of Reading-Berks Historical Interest..... =================================================== 1- The eagerly-awaited BERKS 2-5-0 VIDEO is now available at $10! 2- Interested in Carsonia Park? Check this fascinating web-site: 3- Robesonia's St. Daniel's (Eck Kirche) history now avaiable at $28 4- "Three Men and Their Music" program at Hist. Soc. SAT. at 7:30 =================================================== 1- The best video ever made providing an overview of Berks County's history has just been released as an enduring momento and contribution to the BERKS 2-5-0 celebration. It's a 25-minute masterpiece! While a number of folks on the executive committee of Berks 2-5-0 worked on the project, primary credit for this gem goes to WEEU Radio's Paul Druzba, who wrote and directed the documentary, and Video Works which provided the razzle-dazzle that makes the finished product such a joy to watch. It has the charm of a Disney film! If you like old photos, most of which you've never seen before and all of which are brilliantly razor-sharp, you'll love this video. Historian/radio personality Charles Adams III narrates throughout. The icing on the cake is the fact that "Berks County, the First 250 Years" is being sold at only $10 (tax included) in either VHS or DVD format. The VHS version is available at the Historical Society right now. The DVD is expected in about a week. Either can be purchased for $13 postpaid through the Historical Society. ========================================== 2- Have an interest in Carsonia Park, from 1896 to 1950 located in the Pennside area? If so, access http://www.defunctparks.com Scroll down to Pennsylvania and then to Carsonia Park. ========================================== 3- BOOK REVIEW: ST. DANIEL’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH-- “THE ECK KIRCHE”: 1751-2001; 248 pages; 285 illustrations; hardcover; 8.5 by 11 inches; published by St. Daniel’s Church, 480 Big Spring Road, Robesonia, PA 19551. Copies are available at the church at $28. Authorship of this volume is credited to “the St. Daniel’s History Committee, 1999-2002,” a group of 15 who produced an attractive and well-illustrated book. Coverage, generally, is chronological in nature and patently comprehensive. To the group’s credit, more probably that of editor J. Wesley Bahorik, wording throughout is carefully crafted and devoid of offhand assumption, a fault often found in work produced by “unaccustomed historians.” The name “Saint Daniel’s” came relatively late to this congregation and its church. Prior to around 1814, the congregation’s house of worship was known as Heidelberg Church, or Eck Kirche--“Corner Church,” named for its location at the prominent corner of a road leading northward from what was long known as the Berks and Dauphin Turnpike--or the Harrisburg Pike. It was during the ministry of the much admired Rev. DANIEL Ulrich (1811-1853) that the name-change took place. On December 8, 1976, the twice-remodeled but historically significant 1814-1817 edifice was totally destroyed by fire, an event that profoundly stunned church-folk throughout Western Berks. A modern house of worship was erected in the proximity of the original building-site. Of probable interest to parishioners and genealogists are complete lists of all confirmation class members from 1854 to 2001. Group photos of many of the classes--beginning around 1906--also are included. For the record, while valuable church records were destroyed in the 1976 fire, much of the early history was preserved through the writings of Michael A. Gruber, well-known area historian, photographer, and educator. This attractively-bound volume has a 3-page table of contents, a 2-page bibliography, and an extensive list of acknowledgments. It contains no index. ============================================ 4- FREE CONCERT at the Historical Society, 940 Centre Ave., tomorrow (Saturday, May 18th) at 7:30 p.m. The "THREE MEN and their MUSIC" program will last around 70 min. and features comments and demonstrations by Dr. Stuart Cohn, John Henry Funk, and Geo. Meiser. Dr. Cohn will probably use video and cassette-tape clips to show the engaging talents of two mezzo sopranos of yesteryear. John Henry Funk, who recently made a CD recording of his favorite (short) art songs of years ago, will play four to demonstrate his enduring talents as an 83-year-old baritone who has had a notable career in oratorio and opera. He was a music educator at a private school in New England for many years. He is a Boyertown native now living in Reading. WEEU's Dave Kline, a local musician who has many splendid CD's to his credit, produced Mr. Funk's CD and sings a duet with him on the disc--which will be heard on the program. It's a CHARMER! Not incidentally, the CD, which will soon be available for purchase, will benefit the Reading Symphony Orchestra. Geo. Meiser will play several old-time recordings of locals who made recordings at the Victor Company's Camden studio--in the 1920's. Two of these are Reading's Paul Althouse and Beulah Miller-Van Reed, the latter of whom was for years contralto soloist at Reading's First Presbyterian Church, 5th and Franklin. She was the wife of C. Raymond Van Reed, the last of the Van Reeds to operate the 19th century Van Reed paper mills. She had lived in Pennside until her death at 87 in 1971. ============================ gmmix ===== end =====

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