Wernersville, Pennsylvania

Berks County

42-82296

Wernersville is a municipality in Berks County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania with 2,150 inhabitants according to the census of 2000.

Geography

Wernersville is located in eastern Pennsylvania approximately ten kilometers west of the town of Reading, is the county seat of Berks County.

History

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Wernersville was known as a resort. City residents from Philadelphia, New York City and other cities took advantage of the breakpoint of the Reading Railroad, to enjoy the cool mountain air of South Mountain. To this end, several large hotels were built, including Galen Hall, Bynden Wood, Grandview and the Highland Hotel. Some of these hotels were advertised as a sanatorium, in particular to rest cures for diseases such as tuberculosis perform. The most famous of these institutions was Dr. Robert Walter 's Mountain Park ( short Walters Park ). Many of these rest houses were later converted building for institutional purposes.

There is a small community of Jesuits in Wernersville. The place was once home to the novice center of the province of Maryland Society of Jesus before the novices of the provinces of New York and Maryland united and its headquarters to Syracuse (New York) installed.

Those who worked on site

• Alexander Schimmelfennig (* 1824, † 1865), a German-born general in the Union Army during the Civil War; died in a sanatorium in Wernersville, while trying to cure his advanced tuberculosis