Escape routes

Yesterday was an opportunity to escape from Philadelphia and spend the day in the formerly-important industrial and railroad town of Reading, 65 miles to the north.

Historical markers scattered in the central area attest to Reading's military importance from the time of the Revolutionary War with its iron works producing guns and munitions. The area was settled by German immigrants whose labour created prosperous farmland and a thriving business community. But economic depression in the late 20th century appears to have ripped the heart out of the place. Out-of-town retail outlets are its main stock-in-trade now. Wandering around the centre today, we found the streets almost deserted and many of the former stores boarded up like this one.

I don't know if the apartments above are still occupied but if they are it's likely their tenants are hispanic: Reading has seen a huge influx of migrants from South and Central America and they now make up almost 50% of the population. The language on the streets was predominantly Spanish. Reading PA may have seemed a sad sort of place to us but to many it's clearly a place to escape a far worse lifestyle. It's not clear where the jobs are but many small businesses are being run by and for migrants.

These fire escapes were the main focus of my blip. They're something of an American stereotype to anyone from Europe where they do exist but rarely with such prominence. It seems that the provision of external fire escapes became law after a tragedy in New York in 1860 when fire broke out in a wood-framed six-storey tenement building in Elm Street. People were seen clustered in the windows and on the roof as the flames sprang up from a bakery below. The Fire Dept.'s longest ladders were not long enough and 10 women and children perished in full view. As a result, it became mandatory in New York, and presumably elsewhere, for landlords to provide a means of 'external egress' which are the structures are we see today.

We ourselves fled from the nonentity that is present-day Reading to its twin town, West Reading, across the river. There we found a quite different sort of place with thriving shops, busy streets and, best of all, a fantastic museum - a great escape and worth a detour on anyone's itinerary.

[ As an addendum, I was thrilled to find that there's actually a thesis Fire Escapes in Urban America: history and preservation, by Elizabeth Marie Andre. I'm bookmarking it to read at a later date - it sounds fascinating and I expect to learn a lot more about them.]