READING, Pa. \u2014 You\u2019ve probably passed this building on Washington Street in Reading without realizing what\u2019s inside. The First Reformed Church.<\/p>\n
This Wednesday, we went inside with Alan Shuman, the developer leading the building\u2019s renovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely wonderful, amazing church,\u201d said Shuman, director at Shuman Development Group.<\/p>\n
As work continues, Shuman says they\u2019ve been uncovering pieces of the church\u2019s past.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the stained glass was replaced in the 1970s, but we still have some of the original here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Then, while inspecting the basement, something unexpected caught his attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere you see the altar pieces,\u201d Shuman said. \u201cWhat people online are saying is that these are pieces from the Second Reformed Church, the Baer Chapel that we restored. And when the church groups merged, this got moved over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Shuman shared the discovery on social media, former church members, historians, and longtime residents began chiming in, sharing memories and piecing together its story. Some believe the marble altar dates back to the late 1800s.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery building you go into, you know you\u2019re going to find something,\u201d Shuman said. \u201cThese buildings have been here for hundreds of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now, the focus is on what comes next. Just imagine this beautiful church transformed, becoming an event space filled with people, stories, and conversations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the vision,\u201d Shuman said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a wedding space upstairs, nondenominational weddings, and more spaces like the one we\u2019re in now that will serve as reception areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
An open house showcasing the space, including where the altar will ultimately be placed, is planned for May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2014 You\u2019ve probably passed this building on Washington Street in Reading without realizing what\u2019s inside. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[42546,45806,45805,28,736,128,130,129,45807],"class_list":{"0":"post-93035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-alan-shuman","9":"tag-baer-chapel","10":"tag-first-reformed-church","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-reading","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news","16":"tag-second-reformed-church"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93035","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=93035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}