Founder of Roadside America Miniature Village in Shartlesville, PA
Biography from www.roadsideamericainc.com:
At the turn of the century, near Reading, Pennsylvania, Laurence Gieringer, age 5, often looked out of his bedroom window at night, gazing toward nearby Neversink Mountain. Crowning the mountain was the Highland Hotel with lights that twinkled and beckoned. To little Laurence, the glittering white building looked like something from a fairy tale, small enough to pick up and carry home. One day, the boy decided to do just that. Leaving the safety of his backyard, he set off through the woods to find the mountain top and the "toy" building. The inevitable happened. Laurence became bewildered, then completely lost. After a frightening night alone in the woods, he was found by anxious searchers the next morning. Despite this experience, the boy was to retain his interest in "toy" houses for the rest of his life.
Going to work at age 16, Laurence, after a start in the printing trade, became a carpenter and painter, work which he felt gave more scope to his particular talents. Always he continued to work on his hobby of making model buildings. Skillfully, he whittled at blocks of wood, fashioning them to his dream of a miniature village … a church … bridges … a horse-drawn carriage … stables … farmhouses. He knew nothing of drawing to scale, yet arbitrarily established a size of 3/8" to the foot, which he adhered to in all his modeling.
So the years went by. Laurence had pursued his hobby for some 60 years, continually enhancing his skill and artistry. The miniature "village" had grown steadily in size and scope, and news of it began spreading through the countryside. At Christmas, 1935, Gieringer as usual set up a part of his miniature display for his children. Hearing of the splendor of the exhibit, the Reading Eagle newspaper published a feature story on it. Now interest mounted still more rapidly.
Every day through all 12 months of the year, throngs of visitors come to ROADSIDE AMERICA. The exhibit fascinates not only because of its authentic, beautifully crafted miniatures, but because of the excitement of continual movement. Swift trains glide through tunnels and over bridges … a tiny fountain bubbles in the miniature Zoo … a mountain trolley hustles through the woodland … an old-time grist mill slowly grinds grain for flour. This is only a small part of the action at ROADSIDE AMERICA.
Boys are known to have active imaginations, but never in his most optimistic dreams, could the 10-year-old Laurence Gieringer have suspected that his beloved hobby would one day become a giant exhibit of museum calibre … an exhibit that annually delights hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
ROADSIDE AMERICA is a truly exciting treat for your children and for you.
ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHY
"Laurence Gieringer (1893-1963) was born in Reading to Charles A. and Annie C. (Wagner) Gieringer. He and his younger brother, Paul, were very adventurous and had a lot of space to explore growing up. Through oral family tradition, it is said that Laurence and Paul found early inspiration for model building when their mother sent them outside to play while she was preparing dinner. The brothers found their way to Mount Penn where they got an exceptional view of the Reading cityscape below. According to Mr. Gieringer, it was that day that he and Paul agreed to recreate a miniature city of their own. Charles Gieringer was a craftsman by profession, making saddles and harnesses to support his family. He helped his sons set up a workshop at their home where they perfected their model-building skills. The love for creating miniatures took over. As they reached adulthood, Paul Gieringer entered the priesthood, but Laurence carried on with his skilled hobby.
In 1915, Laurence Gieringer married Theodora "Dora" Seisler and moved in with her family at 935 Buttonwood Street in Reading. On August 27, 1916, they welcomed their first child, Paul, named after Laurence's brother. Laurence and Dora had their daughter, Alberta, on September 12, 1923. According to U.S. Census records, by 1930 the Gieringer family was living at 1019 North 11th Street, Reading and shortly thereafter resided in Hamburg. Laurence never gave up his hobby of model building. In fact, at their Hamburg home, Laurence built a small display he took great pride in. Unknowingly, his wife entered it in a Christmas decoration competition. He won and was encouraged to open his home for the public to see; the rest is history. Laurence Gieringer willingly showed his model display off to anyone who was interested. It grew in popularity and size and was eventually moved to Reading's Carsonia Park where visitors could more easily see it without having to visit the Gieringer family home. The local amusement park housed the miniature village from approximately 1938 to 1940.
To accommodate growing interest and build an even larger display, in 1940 Gieringer purchased the Shartlesville property everyone is familiar with today. The building served formerly as a dance hall, but Laurence had a vision to finally complete the miniature city he and his brother vowed to create all those years earlier. Roadside America reopened to the public in 1953, where Laurence continued to build his city for the remaining ten years of his life. His legacy lasted unchanged for another (nearly) six decades before closing in 2020.
According to Roadside America's website, the 3/8 inch to one foot scale display contains the following incredible features created and assembled by Laurence Gieringer, himself:
- A 7,450 square foot, fully landscaped village diorama displaying over 300 miniature structures. The diorama took 17,700 board feet of lumber, and tens of thousands of pounds of building materials such as sheet iron, nails, paint, plaster, moss, cement, etc.
- Up to 18 "O" gauge trains, trolleys and cable cars running throughout the display on 2,250 feet of railroad track.
- 10,000 handmade trees that surround the buildings and many rivers and streams filled with actual running water.
- 4,000 miniature people engaged in everyday daily tasks.
- Interactive animations that could be activated by visitors; this included over 600 miniature lightbulbs.
- The lights and animations were powered by approximately 21,500 feet of electrical wiring.
In its heyday, Roadside America welcomed more than 100,000 people annually. Today, it is exceptionally rare to come across a person of any age who did not visit the interactive display at some point in their lifetime. As sites in Berks County go, there might not be another that invokes such a strong sense of nostalgia across multiple generations...each of us belong to a shared community that felt sorrow in our hearts when the roadside attraction announced its permanent closure in November, 2020, and again, as we watched the model be dismantled and auctioned off in early 2021...Roadside America may no longer exist, but our fond memories of the 'greatest indoor miniature village' will continue to last a lifetime."
(Berks History Center's Curator Amber Vroman; The Historical Review of Berks County; Summer 2022; Volume 89, Number 3)
Contributor: Sam Kiebach (50141892)
Biography from www.roadsideamericainc.com:
At the turn of the century, near Reading, Pennsylvania, Laurence Gieringer, age 5, often looked out of his bedroom window at night, gazing toward nearby Neversink Mountain. Crowning the mountain was the Highland Hotel with lights that twinkled and beckoned. To little Laurence, the glittering white building looked like something from a fairy tale, small enough to pick up and carry home. One day, the boy decided to do just that. Leaving the safety of his backyard, he set off through the woods to find the mountain top and the "toy" building. The inevitable happened. Laurence became bewildered, then completely lost. After a frightening night alone in the woods, he was found by anxious searchers the next morning. Despite this experience, the boy was to retain his interest in "toy" houses for the rest of his life.
Going to work at age 16, Laurence, after a start in the printing trade, became a carpenter and painter, work which he felt gave more scope to his particular talents. Always he continued to work on his hobby of making model buildings. Skillfully, he whittled at blocks of wood, fashioning them to his dream of a miniature village … a church … bridges … a horse-drawn carriage … stables … farmhouses. He knew nothing of drawing to scale, yet arbitrarily established a size of 3/8" to the foot, which he adhered to in all his modeling.
So the years went by. Laurence had pursued his hobby for some 60 years, continually enhancing his skill and artistry. The miniature "village" had grown steadily in size and scope, and news of it began spreading through the countryside. At Christmas, 1935, Gieringer as usual set up a part of his miniature display for his children. Hearing of the splendor of the exhibit, the Reading Eagle newspaper published a feature story on it. Now interest mounted still more rapidly.
Every day through all 12 months of the year, throngs of visitors come to ROADSIDE AMERICA. The exhibit fascinates not only because of its authentic, beautifully crafted miniatures, but because of the excitement of continual movement. Swift trains glide through tunnels and over bridges … a tiny fountain bubbles in the miniature Zoo … a mountain trolley hustles through the woodland … an old-time grist mill slowly grinds grain for flour. This is only a small part of the action at ROADSIDE AMERICA.
Boys are known to have active imaginations, but never in his most optimistic dreams, could the 10-year-old Laurence Gieringer have suspected that his beloved hobby would one day become a giant exhibit of museum calibre … an exhibit that annually delights hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
ROADSIDE AMERICA is a truly exciting treat for your children and for you.
ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHY
"Laurence Gieringer (1893-1963) was born in Reading to Charles A. and Annie C. (Wagner) Gieringer. He and his younger brother, Paul, were very adventurous and had a lot of space to explore growing up. Through oral family tradition, it is said that Laurence and Paul found early inspiration for model building when their mother sent them outside to play while she was preparing dinner. The brothers found their way to Mount Penn where they got an exceptional view of the Reading cityscape below. According to Mr. Gieringer, it was that day that he and Paul agreed to recreate a miniature city of their own. Charles Gieringer was a craftsman by profession, making saddles and harnesses to support his family. He helped his sons set up a workshop at their home where they perfected their model-building skills. The love for creating miniatures took over. As they reached adulthood, Paul Gieringer entered the priesthood, but Laurence carried on with his skilled hobby.
In 1915, Laurence Gieringer married Theodora "Dora" Seisler and moved in with her family at 935 Buttonwood Street in Reading. On August 27, 1916, they welcomed their first child, Paul, named after Laurence's brother. Laurence and Dora had their daughter, Alberta, on September 12, 1923. According to U.S. Census records, by 1930 the Gieringer family was living at 1019 North 11th Street, Reading and shortly thereafter resided in Hamburg. Laurence never gave up his hobby of model building. In fact, at their Hamburg home, Laurence built a small display he took great pride in. Unknowingly, his wife entered it in a Christmas decoration competition. He won and was encouraged to open his home for the public to see; the rest is history. Laurence Gieringer willingly showed his model display off to anyone who was interested. It grew in popularity and size and was eventually moved to Reading's Carsonia Park where visitors could more easily see it without having to visit the Gieringer family home. The local amusement park housed the miniature village from approximately 1938 to 1940.
To accommodate growing interest and build an even larger display, in 1940 Gieringer purchased the Shartlesville property everyone is familiar with today. The building served formerly as a dance hall, but Laurence had a vision to finally complete the miniature city he and his brother vowed to create all those years earlier. Roadside America reopened to the public in 1953, where Laurence continued to build his city for the remaining ten years of his life. His legacy lasted unchanged for another (nearly) six decades before closing in 2020.
According to Roadside America's website, the 3/8 inch to one foot scale display contains the following incredible features created and assembled by Laurence Gieringer, himself:
- A 7,450 square foot, fully landscaped village diorama displaying over 300 miniature structures. The diorama took 17,700 board feet of lumber, and tens of thousands of pounds of building materials such as sheet iron, nails, paint, plaster, moss, cement, etc.
- Up to 18 "O" gauge trains, trolleys and cable cars running throughout the display on 2,250 feet of railroad track.
- 10,000 handmade trees that surround the buildings and many rivers and streams filled with actual running water.
- 4,000 miniature people engaged in everyday daily tasks.
- Interactive animations that could be activated by visitors; this included over 600 miniature lightbulbs.
- The lights and animations were powered by approximately 21,500 feet of electrical wiring.
In its heyday, Roadside America welcomed more than 100,000 people annually. Today, it is exceptionally rare to come across a person of any age who did not visit the interactive display at some point in their lifetime. As sites in Berks County go, there might not be another that invokes such a strong sense of nostalgia across multiple generations...each of us belong to a shared community that felt sorrow in our hearts when the roadside attraction announced its permanent closure in November, 2020, and again, as we watched the model be dismantled and auctioned off in early 2021...Roadside America may no longer exist, but our fond memories of the 'greatest indoor miniature village' will continue to last a lifetime."
(Berks History Center's Curator Amber Vroman; The Historical Review of Berks County; Summer 2022; Volume 89, Number 3)
Contributor: Sam Kiebach (50141892)
Founder of Roadside America Miniature Village in Shartlesville, PA
Biography from www.roadsideamericainc.com:
At the turn of the century, near Reading, Pennsylvania, Laurence Gieringer, age 5, often looked out of his bedroom window at night, gazing toward nearby Neversink Mountain. Crowning the mountain was the Highland Hotel with lights that twinkled and beckoned. To little Laurence, the glittering white building looked like something from a fairy tale, small enough to pick up and carry home. One day, the boy decided to do just that. Leaving the safety of his backyard, he set off through the woods to find the mountain top and the "toy" building. The inevitable happened. Laurence became bewildered, then completely lost. After a frightening night alone in the woods, he was found by anxious searchers the next morning. Despite this experience, the boy was to retain his interest in "toy" houses for the rest of his life.
Going to work at age 16, Laurence, after a start in the printing trade, became a carpenter and painter, work which he felt gave more scope to his particular talents. Always he continued to work on his hobby of making model buildings. Skillfully, he whittled at blocks of wood, fashioning them to his dream of a miniature village … a church … bridges … a horse-drawn carriage … stables … farmhouses. He knew nothing of drawing to scale, yet arbitrarily established a size of 3/8" to the foot, which he adhered to in all his modeling.
So the years went by. Laurence had pursued his hobby for some 60 years, continually enhancing his skill and artistry. The miniature "village" had grown steadily in size and scope, and news of it began spreading through the countryside. At Christmas, 1935, Gieringer as usual set up a part of his miniature display for his children. Hearing of the splendor of the exhibit, the Reading Eagle newspaper published a feature story on it. Now interest mounted still more rapidly.
Every day through all 12 months of the year, throngs of visitors come to ROADSIDE AMERICA. The exhibit fascinates not only because of its authentic, beautifully crafted miniatures, but because of the excitement of continual movement. Swift trains glide through tunnels and over bridges … a tiny fountain bubbles in the miniature Zoo … a mountain trolley hustles through the woodland … an old-time grist mill slowly grinds grain for flour. This is only a small part of the action at ROADSIDE AMERICA.
Boys are known to have active imaginations, but never in his most optimistic dreams, could the 10-year-old Laurence Gieringer have suspected that his beloved hobby would one day become a giant exhibit of museum calibre … an exhibit that annually delights hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
ROADSIDE AMERICA is a truly exciting treat for your children and for you.
ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHY
"Laurence Gieringer (1893-1963) was born in Reading to Charles A. and Annie C. (Wagner) Gieringer. He and his younger brother, Paul, were very adventurous and had a lot of space to explore growing up. Through oral family tradition, it is said that Laurence and Paul found early inspiration for model building when their mother sent them outside to play while she was preparing dinner. The brothers found their way to Mount Penn where they got an exceptional view of the Reading cityscape below. According to Mr. Gieringer, it was that day that he and Paul agreed to recreate a miniature city of their own. Charles Gieringer was a craftsman by profession, making saddles and harnesses to support his family. He helped his sons set up a workshop at their home where they perfected their model-building skills. The love for creating miniatures took over. As they reached adulthood, Paul Gieringer entered the priesthood, but Laurence carried on with his skilled hobby.
In 1915, Laurence Gieringer married Theodora "Dora" Seisler and moved in with her family at 935 Buttonwood Street in Reading. On August 27, 1916, they welcomed their first child, Paul, named after Laurence's brother. Laurence and Dora had their daughter, Alberta, on September 12, 1923. According to U.S. Census records, by 1930 the Gieringer family was living at 1019 North 11th Street, Reading and shortly thereafter resided in Hamburg. Laurence never gave up his hobby of model building. In fact, at their Hamburg home, Laurence built a small display he took great pride in. Unknowingly, his wife entered it in a Christmas decoration competition. He won and was encouraged to open his home for the public to see; the rest is history. Laurence Gieringer willingly showed his model display off to anyone who was interested. It grew in popularity and size and was eventually moved to Reading's Carsonia Park where visitors could more easily see it without having to visit the Gieringer family home. The local amusement park housed the miniature village from approximately 1938 to 1940.
To accommodate growing interest and build an even larger display, in 1940 Gieringer purchased the Shartlesville property everyone is familiar with today. The building served formerly as a dance hall, but Laurence had a vision to finally complete the miniature city he and his brother vowed to create all those years earlier. Roadside America reopened to the public in 1953, where Laurence continued to build his city for the remaining ten years of his life. His legacy lasted unchanged for another (nearly) six decades before closing in 2020.
According to Roadside America's website, the 3/8 inch to one foot scale display contains the following incredible features created and assembled by Laurence Gieringer, himself:
- A 7,450 square foot, fully landscaped village diorama displaying over 300 miniature structures. The diorama took 17,700 board feet of lumber, and tens of thousands of pounds of building materials such as sheet iron, nails, paint, plaster, moss, cement, etc.
- Up to 18 "O" gauge trains, trolleys and cable cars running throughout the display on 2,250 feet of railroad track.
- 10,000 handmade trees that surround the buildings and many rivers and streams filled with actual running water.
- 4,000 miniature people engaged in everyday daily tasks.
- Interactive animations that could be activated by visitors; this included over 600 miniature lightbulbs.
- The lights and animations were powered by approximately 21,500 feet of electrical wiring.
In its heyday, Roadside America welcomed more than 100,000 people annually. Today, it is exceptionally rare to come across a person of any age who did not visit the interactive display at some point in their lifetime. As sites in Berks County go, there might not be another that invokes such a strong sense of nostalgia across multiple generations...each of us belong to a shared community that felt sorrow in our hearts when the roadside attraction announced its permanent closure in November, 2020, and again, as we watched the model be dismantled and auctioned off in early 2021...Roadside America may no longer exist, but our fond memories of the 'greatest indoor miniature village' will continue to last a lifetime."
(Berks History Center's Curator Amber Vroman; The Historical Review of Berks County; Summer 2022; Volume 89, Number 3)
Contributor: Sam Kiebach (50141892)
Biography from www.roadsideamericainc.com:
At the turn of the century, near Reading, Pennsylvania, Laurence Gieringer, age 5, often looked out of his bedroom window at night, gazing toward nearby Neversink Mountain. Crowning the mountain was the Highland Hotel with lights that twinkled and beckoned. To little Laurence, the glittering white building looked like something from a fairy tale, small enough to pick up and carry home. One day, the boy decided to do just that. Leaving the safety of his backyard, he set off through the woods to find the mountain top and the "toy" building. The inevitable happened. Laurence became bewildered, then completely lost. After a frightening night alone in the woods, he was found by anxious searchers the next morning. Despite this experience, the boy was to retain his interest in "toy" houses for the rest of his life.
Going to work at age 16, Laurence, after a start in the printing trade, became a carpenter and painter, work which he felt gave more scope to his particular talents. Always he continued to work on his hobby of making model buildings. Skillfully, he whittled at blocks of wood, fashioning them to his dream of a miniature village … a church … bridges … a horse-drawn carriage … stables … farmhouses. He knew nothing of drawing to scale, yet arbitrarily established a size of 3/8" to the foot, which he adhered to in all his modeling.
So the years went by. Laurence had pursued his hobby for some 60 years, continually enhancing his skill and artistry. The miniature "village" had grown steadily in size and scope, and news of it began spreading through the countryside. At Christmas, 1935, Gieringer as usual set up a part of his miniature display for his children. Hearing of the splendor of the exhibit, the Reading Eagle newspaper published a feature story on it. Now interest mounted still more rapidly.
Every day through all 12 months of the year, throngs of visitors come to ROADSIDE AMERICA. The exhibit fascinates not only because of its authentic, beautifully crafted miniatures, but because of the excitement of continual movement. Swift trains glide through tunnels and over bridges … a tiny fountain bubbles in the miniature Zoo … a mountain trolley hustles through the woodland … an old-time grist mill slowly grinds grain for flour. This is only a small part of the action at ROADSIDE AMERICA.
Boys are known to have active imaginations, but never in his most optimistic dreams, could the 10-year-old Laurence Gieringer have suspected that his beloved hobby would one day become a giant exhibit of museum calibre … an exhibit that annually delights hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
ROADSIDE AMERICA is a truly exciting treat for your children and for you.
ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHY
"Laurence Gieringer (1893-1963) was born in Reading to Charles A. and Annie C. (Wagner) Gieringer. He and his younger brother, Paul, were very adventurous and had a lot of space to explore growing up. Through oral family tradition, it is said that Laurence and Paul found early inspiration for model building when their mother sent them outside to play while she was preparing dinner. The brothers found their way to Mount Penn where they got an exceptional view of the Reading cityscape below. According to Mr. Gieringer, it was that day that he and Paul agreed to recreate a miniature city of their own. Charles Gieringer was a craftsman by profession, making saddles and harnesses to support his family. He helped his sons set up a workshop at their home where they perfected their model-building skills. The love for creating miniatures took over. As they reached adulthood, Paul Gieringer entered the priesthood, but Laurence carried on with his skilled hobby.
In 1915, Laurence Gieringer married Theodora "Dora" Seisler and moved in with her family at 935 Buttonwood Street in Reading. On August 27, 1916, they welcomed their first child, Paul, named after Laurence's brother. Laurence and Dora had their daughter, Alberta, on September 12, 1923. According to U.S. Census records, by 1930 the Gieringer family was living at 1019 North 11th Street, Reading and shortly thereafter resided in Hamburg. Laurence never gave up his hobby of model building. In fact, at their Hamburg home, Laurence built a small display he took great pride in. Unknowingly, his wife entered it in a Christmas decoration competition. He won and was encouraged to open his home for the public to see; the rest is history. Laurence Gieringer willingly showed his model display off to anyone who was interested. It grew in popularity and size and was eventually moved to Reading's Carsonia Park where visitors could more easily see it without having to visit the Gieringer family home. The local amusement park housed the miniature village from approximately 1938 to 1940.
To accommodate growing interest and build an even larger display, in 1940 Gieringer purchased the Shartlesville property everyone is familiar with today. The building served formerly as a dance hall, but Laurence had a vision to finally complete the miniature city he and his brother vowed to create all those years earlier. Roadside America reopened to the public in 1953, where Laurence continued to build his city for the remaining ten years of his life. His legacy lasted unchanged for another (nearly) six decades before closing in 2020.
According to Roadside America's website, the 3/8 inch to one foot scale display contains the following incredible features created and assembled by Laurence Gieringer, himself:
- A 7,450 square foot, fully landscaped village diorama displaying over 300 miniature structures. The diorama took 17,700 board feet of lumber, and tens of thousands of pounds of building materials such as sheet iron, nails, paint, plaster, moss, cement, etc.
- Up to 18 "O" gauge trains, trolleys and cable cars running throughout the display on 2,250 feet of railroad track.
- 10,000 handmade trees that surround the buildings and many rivers and streams filled with actual running water.
- 4,000 miniature people engaged in everyday daily tasks.
- Interactive animations that could be activated by visitors; this included over 600 miniature lightbulbs.
- The lights and animations were powered by approximately 21,500 feet of electrical wiring.
In its heyday, Roadside America welcomed more than 100,000 people annually. Today, it is exceptionally rare to come across a person of any age who did not visit the interactive display at some point in their lifetime. As sites in Berks County go, there might not be another that invokes such a strong sense of nostalgia across multiple generations...each of us belong to a shared community that felt sorrow in our hearts when the roadside attraction announced its permanent closure in November, 2020, and again, as we watched the model be dismantled and auctioned off in early 2021...Roadside America may no longer exist, but our fond memories of the 'greatest indoor miniature village' will continue to last a lifetime."
(Berks History Center's Curator Amber Vroman; The Historical Review of Berks County; Summer 2022; Volume 89, Number 3)
Contributor: Sam Kiebach (50141892)
