Michelle Lynch: Reading officials say Mineral Spring Hotel building may be beyond renovations

May 23—If Reading does not take measures to repair the former Mineral Spring Hotel, it may soon be too late.

The city-owned building at the northern end of South 19th Street was long leased to the East End Athletic Club and has been vacant since the club was evicted under former Mayor Wally Scott's administration in 2017.

Though not in good condition when occupied, the building has further deteriorated, Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz said during a recent City Council committee-of-the-whole meeting.

"At this point, if anyone gets in, it is a real fire trap," she said. "I think it is real liability to the city, but it has tremendous historic value to it."

Councilwoman Donna Reed said the city had been in talks last year with the Berks County Department of Veterans Affairs and state Rep. Mark Rozzi's office about possibly renovating the building as a veterans' service center, catering to homeless veterans.

Reed said she was contacted by a representative of the Berks County chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America requesting a meeting with the mayor, council and county veterans department to revisit the proposal.

Reed asked the mayor's office to set up a meeting as a courtesy to the veterans' organization.

Goodman-Hinnershitz said she is willing to attend a meeting.

"But I'm going to do a reality check," she said, asking if any of the council members had been in the facility in recent years.

She said she toured the building about five years ago while it was still occupied by the club.

"I was absolutely astounded that they even had an occupancy permit," she said, noting there were multiple plumbing issues.

The building would need more than just new mechanicals, said Frank Denbowski, Mayor Eddie Moran's chief of staff and interim city manager. There have been concerns about the overall structural integrity, he said.

"In my view, it is to the point that it's beyond renovations," he said.

Goodman-Hinnershitz said the county's veterans deserve a newer and more appropriate facility.

But such a facility could not be built in Mineral Spring Park due to restrictions reserving city parkland for recreational purposes, Denbowski said.

He said he was uncertain how the former hotel building came to be leased to the East End Club.

"The complete deterioration of the building is an abomination, in a way, when you look at the history of that place," Reed said.

The old hotel is steeped in local history and is considered significant as an example of an early health resort, said George M. Meiser IX, Berks County historian.

Meiser said it was built about 1815 as a textile mill, but the venture failed and the stone building was converted into a hotel.

It was believed that water from a spring on the property was rich in healthful and curative minerals, and the hotel became one of the first in the county to offer mineral water cures, he said.

The hotel also became a popular spot for general recreation under a succession of innkeepers and owners, Meiser said.

The Reading Water Co. bought the hotel and surrounding woodland in 1859 to build a reservoir there.

The property came under city control in 1865 when the city acquired the assets of the private water company.

In the late 1800s, Mineral Spring Dam supplied local residents with about 120,000 gallons of water a day.

With the general population receiving the daily benefits of the mineral water, the hotel service focus shifted from mineral cures, Meiser said. Soon the inn became the local hot spot for youth dances and chicken and waffles dinners.

Local newspaper articles from the 1930s reveal the city-owned building was leased and operated as a restaurant and gathering place in that decade.

"It's astonishing history, and shame on the city of Reading for letting that (neglect) happen over the many, many, many years," Reed said. "But I think we owe it to the veterans to at least have a meeting."