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The entrance to an old vault once used to store barrels of beer has been sealed for public safety.

A relic of Reading’s 19th century brewing industry, the old stone structure on South Ninth Street has long intrigued Paul Zenone.

He discovered the cellarlike structure dug into the western slope of Neversink Mountain about 10 years ago while hiking in the vicinity.

The Delaware County native, 56, enjoys hiking on a system of  mountain trails maintained by Berks Nature and is fascinated by the tales of Neversink’s long-gone scenic railway, resorts and other attractions.

“There is a lot of history up there,” Zenone said.

During one cold winter walk about five years ago, he was surprised and saddened to find several people had taken shelter inside the vault, which stretches about 140 feet into the mountain side beneath the city’s 10th and South streets playground.

“It went down below freezing for about a week,” he said, “and there were people actually living in there and lighting fires to keep warm.”

Zenone was immediately concerned for their welfare.

He and his girlfriend, Sandra Jones, 40, are the cofounders of Providing Hope, a grassroots group that helps provide food and clothes to those living on the city’s streets.

“So I went back up to the house,” he said, “grabbed some coats, grabbed some gloves and stuff, warm socks and all for them.”

Zenone said he saw people living sporadically inside the vault until recently when the entrance was sealed and backfilled by the city’s Public Works Department.

Stones crumbling in the mouth of the cave left it vulnerable to collapse, said Ronald Epps, solid waste foreman.

Epps, who directed the city crew that did the recent work, said the fires lighted by those living inside further damaged the stone structure.

The vault’s condition has been a concern of the city for several years.

Former Public Works Director Ralph E. Johnson spoke to the Reading Eagle about it in November 2019.

The city’s primary goal then was securing the structure for safety, Johnson said. Ideally, he added, the cave could be preserved as a bit of history.

“I would like to see it stabilized,” Johnson said in 2019. “I’m just not sure where it is on our priority list.”

Zenone said he watched the continued deterioration with concern for those living inside and the loss of a local landmark.

He contacted the mayor’s office and, not knowing where else to turn, emailed the Berks History Center for more information and possible direction for getting the structure restored.

Historic preservation projects fall outside the center’s mission to tell the story of Berks County and its diverse people, according to the center’s website.

“While we accomplish our mission through our research archives at the Henry Janssen Library, museum exhibits, educational programs and publishing, we wish we had the resources necessary to preserve historic structures, too,” said Benjamin Neely, director of the center. “If there is a desire by the city to preserve the site in the future, the Berks History Center is happy to be invited to be part of the discussion.”

The center put Zenone in touch with local historian George M. Meiser IX, who provided some background on the site.

Meiser said the beer cave, as it is sometimes called, was built in the 1850s for brewer Nicholas A. Felix, who used it to preserve his wares.

Felix’s beer was produced in the Spring Garden Brewery at the northwest corner of 10th and Chestnut streets, now the site of Southern Middle School.

It may seem odd that the vault was more than six blocks from the brewery, Meiser said, but the explanation is simple.

“Beer vaults were not always on the brewery sites,” he said. “They had to be in a bank or hillside where they could be dug deeply.”

They also could not be too near springs that might fill them with groundwater, Meiser said, and had to be accessible to the horse-drawn wagons that hauled the aged product to saloons and hotels across Berks.

The hillside vault had the added advantage of being along what was then a major route through the city and northward to Kutztown as well as southward over the mountain and across the Schuylkill River to Poplar Neck and Gibraltar.

Felix’s son-in-law, Dr. William P. Deppen, took over operations around 1870, Meiser said. It is unclear when the old vault on South Ninth Street was abandoned, he said, but it may have been around the time Deppen sold out in 1901.

Without the inspection of a structural engineer, Johnson said in 2019, it would be impossible to assess the condition and safety of the vault’s 20-foot-high arches or estimate the cost of any repairs.

Since the vault is on city owned property, the Public Works Department is responsible for its maintenance and took action to prevent entry.

Even after city workers plowed a mound of earth over the sealed opening, Epps said, someone tunneled a space large enough to squeeze through.

A second load had to be added to the mound. Beneath it, what remains of the structure lies intact awaiting discovery by a future generation.

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