Reading Pagoda PXL_20220904_201948391.MP

The Pagoda atop the south end of Mount Penn is a novelty building built in 1908 as the centerpiece of a resort. When plans for the rest of the resort were abandoned, the building and land was donated to Reading in 1911. Within the top story hangs a tocsin, a massive bell cast in Obata, Mie Prefecture, Japan, in 1739, and formerly installed in a Buddhist temple in either Ogose or Hannō, Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. Listed on the bell's sides in Japanese characters are the names of its 48 donors and a prophecy about the end of time. The temple was closed in 1881, and later destroyed.