{"nrhp_refnum":"97000516","name":"Reading Hardware Company","other_names":["The Hardware","See Also:Reading Hardware Company Butt Works"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Willow, S. 6th, and Canal Sts., and alleyway","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.325571972000034,"lon":-75.92678062699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-06-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of late 19th and early 20th century hardware manufacturing buildings at the southwest corner of Sixth and Willow Streets in the City of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The buildings range from brick and heavy timber structures of the 1870s to 1880s to a seven-story reinforced concrete factory completed in 1923-1924.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the complex is significant in industry for its association with a leading hardware manufacturer and one of the leading firms in Reading's industrial history. It is also significant in architecture for the surviving buildings, particularly Building No. 11, a reinforced concrete factory designed by the Ballinger Company of Philadelphia. The document states that the remaining buildings convey the company's historical associations despite partial demolition.","narrative":"Brick and reinforced concrete factory buildings at the southwest corner of Sixth and Willow Streets in Reading form the surviving core of a hardware manufacturing complex. The works grew from a blacksmith shop opened in 1851 and became the Reading Hardware Company in 1862. After a fire in July 1888 destroyed much of the plant, the company rebuilt, and by 1925 it employed about 1,500 workers on five acres and supplied hardware to buildings including the White House. The seven-story Building No. 11, completed in 1923 and designed by the Ballinger Company, is regarded as an outstanding example of reinforced concrete factory design. Its vertical production process, with raw materials entering at ground level and finished goods leaving the same way, is a notable industrial layout. The surviving buildings, with their monumental scale and boiler house stack, also preserve a record of hardware manufacturing from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1875-1947","architect_builder":"The Ballinger Company (architect)","architectural_style":"Late Victorian; Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements; Modern Movement","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The document states that the buildings are in good repair and retain original architectural integrity; operations ceased in 1950 and several buildings were demolished in 1951 and 1952.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:38.115654-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/97000516.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000516/ad30e95a5b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000516/ad30e95a5b-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reading_Hardware_District.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reading_Hardware_District.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997942","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Hardware_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7300514"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/reading-hardware-company-97000516/"}