Queen Anne Historic District

Located in northwest Reading, this district is a concentration of semi-detached houses, rowhouses, churches and small shops built mainly between 1880 and 1925. Its streets follow a compass-point grid laid out after the city's 1870s street survey, and the homes were largely financed by local building and loan associations that helped working families become owners. Houses range from modest blue-collar rows near the railroad to larger double and single houses on the north side, many with Queen Anne detailing, bay windows and porches. Churches include Emmanuel Baptist, dating from 1885, and Wesley United Methodist, dating from 1922, and most of the churches share a Gothic Revival design. Corner grocery stores and neighborhood theaters once served residents within walking distance. The district is regarded as a surviving example of an urban working and middle class neighborhood, with much of its original streetscape still intact despite siding replacements on many houses.