The Pagoda is a pagoda

Pagoda

A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...

-styled novelty building

Novelty architecture

Novelty architecture is a type of architecture in which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes as a novelty, such as advertising, notoriety as a landmark, or simple eccentricity of the owner or architect. Many examples of novelty architecture take the form of buildings that...

 built atop Mount Penn

Mount Penn, Pennsylvania

Mount Penn is the name of a mountain peak and a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,076 at the 2009 Census. The peak is sometimes recognized as the southern end of the Reading Prong mountains.-Geography:...

, overlooking Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

. Now a symbol of the city, it is also the logo for the minor league Reading Phillies

Reading Phillies

The Reading Phillies are a minor league baseball team based in Reading, Pennsylvania, playing in the Eastern Division of the Eastern League. Since the 1967 season, they have been the AA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies....

 baseball team.

History

Completed in 1908 at a cost of $50,000, it was intended to be the hotel/restaurant centerpiece of a luxury resort. When plans for the rest of the resort were abandoned, the 7-story wooden building on 10 acres (4 ha) of land was donated to Reading in 1911. It is now part of the Mount Penn Reserve, 1595 acres (645.5 ha) of municipally-owned land.
The Pagoda is 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, 50 feet (15 m) long, and 72 feet (22 m) tall. Perched on the edge of a cliff, 886 feet (279 m) above Reading, it offers a 30-mile (48 km) panoramic view of the city and the surrounding countryside.

Within the top story hangs a tocsin, a massive bell cast in Obata

Obata, Mie

was a town located in Watarai District, Mie, Japan.On November 1, 2005 Obata, along with the town of Futami, and the village of Misono, all from Watarai District, was merged into the expanded city of Ise and no longer exists as an independent municipality....

, Mie Prefecture

Mie Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kansai regions on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, Mie prefecture was known as Ise Province and Iga Province....

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 1739, and formerly installed in a Buddhist temple in either Ogose or Hannō

Hanno, Saitama

is a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 82,683 and a population density of 614.29 per km²...

, Saitama Prefecture

Saitama Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Saitama.This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which a large amount of residents commute each day.- History...

, just north of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. Listed on the bell's sides in Old Japanese (kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

) characters are the names of its 48 donors and a prophecy

Prophecy

Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...

 about the end of time. The temple was closed in 1881, and later destroyed.

Anti-Japanese sentiment was rampant during World War II, and there were calls to demolish the building. But it was restored in 1949, with the lower story and balconies rebuilt in stone. In 1960, neon lights were installed outlining its roofs. In the 1970s, the Japanese garden was restored, and Japanese cherry trees were planted around the building. LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights were installed in 2008-09. Two webcam

Webcam

A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...

s on its third floor periodically record and publish the weather atop Mount Penn.

The Pagoda is the home of Pagoda Skyline, Inc., a non-profit organization formed in 1969 to preserve the building and maintain the park surrounding it. It also houses the Berks County Arts Council, a gift shop, and functions as a visitors center for Reading.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1972.