READING, Mich. (WTVG) – Welcome to Reading! This community in western Hillsdale County was established as a village in 1873, then became a city in 1934. This town of about 1,000 people derives its name from a much larger city in southeastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was originally named after Reading [RED-ing] Pennsylvania. At some point in time, that turned into Reading [READ-ing]. We don\u2019t know when,\u201d explained Chad Penney, the Mayor of Reading. \u201cIt was often referred to as Basswood Corners. There were a lot of Basswood Trees I guess in the area at the time. So that kind of gave it its nickname.\u201d<\/p>\n
An exciting memory for Reading was the time that Teddy Roosevelt stopped by town twice in one day on the campaign trail in 1907. But not long before that happened, this community had a much darker day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf of our downtown at one time nearly burned down and had to be rebuilt,\u201d said Mayor Penney. \u201cThis was back at the turn of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading has long since rebuilt, and nowadays there are 3 restaurants in town: Lone Ranger Caf\u00e9, Ray\u2019s Tavern, and the Reading Pizza Barn. There\u2019s also several ag support industries and auto supply facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an industrial park which houses eight or nine businesses that are smaller factories,\u201d explained Ben Wheeler, the Economic Development Director for Reading.<\/p>\n
The small mom and pop shops also really pull the community together, including K-Tee\u2019s Screen Printing and Embroidery, plus Razorback Outdoors. There are also numerous lakes just west of Reading that serve as vacation hotspots, so this does become a bit of a tourist town during the summer.<\/p>\n
But no matter what time of year it is, there\u2019s always something happening. \u201cMay 17th, we celebrate 517 Day, which is a celebration of our area code and living in south-central Michigan,\u201d Wheeler told us.<\/p>\n
517 Day celebrations include live music, cocktails, food trucks, and more. There\u2019s also Reading Summer Festival Days, which features a parade, truck pulls, and a 3 on 3 basketball tournament among other activities. Plus, Halloween in Reading is coming up fast!<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that we\u2019ll have a parade, we\u2019ll have our trick-or-treating and costume judging,\u201d added Wheeler. \u201cIn December we do the old fashioned Christmas, so we have Santa Claus come and we just really deck out the Michigan Street Pavilion. This Michigan Street Pavilion is our hub and home to all these events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading Rangers is the local school district, and about 50 kids graduate from the high school each year. Plus, this small but mighty town had a championship football program in the late 2010s.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur football went to state twice, two years, won back-to-back, which had only happened once before in all of Michigan history for our division. It was pretty cool to have that,\u201d said Mayor Penney. \u201cOur whole town pretty much emptied out and went to Ford Field for those events.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in town in the fall on a Friday and there\u2019s a game at Barre Field, Barre Field is our sacred football field,\u201d Wheeler also told us.<\/p>\n
The schools are a unifying point for everyone in Reading, no matter how long ago they graduated. \u201cA lot of nostalgia around the school and school events,\u201d said Mayor Penney.<\/p>\n
Whether you grow up in Reading or arrive later in life, the charm of this Small Town is undeniable. \u201cWe moved down here when I was a sophomore in high school. My parents changed jobs and we moved down to the area, finished high school down here,\u201d Mayor Penney told us. \u201cMy wife and I, after we had our first child, we started looking for a home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a lifelong resident here,\u201d said Wheeler. \u201cI take great pride in living here, and I take great pride in seeing our little town succeed. You know, you can do big things in a little town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latest Local News<\/a> | First Alert Weather<\/a> | Crime<\/a> | National<\/a> | 13abc Originals<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WTVG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Mich. (WTVG) – Welcome to Reading! This community in western Hillsdale County was established as a village…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-308664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}