Angelica Creek Park

Angelica Creek Park. . , Site History , Historically, Angelica Creek collected surface runoff and groundwater from a predominantly forested watershed and conveyed this flow to the Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River. During the Industrial Revolution, the Angelica Ice Company constructed an earthen dam to harness the creek for ice production and, in turn, created Angelica Lake. The City of Reading purchased the lake around 1915 for recreation associated with public boating, fishing, and swimming activities. In recent years, the condition of the lake and dam deteriorated as a result of increased siltation associated with upstream development. Expensive dredging activities were required to maintain the health of the aquatic habitat and lake depth for active recreational uses., In 2001, Tropical Storm Alison dropped 8 inches of rain within a 24-hour period, resulting in the failure of the Angelica Lake Dam and Route 10 Bridge. This failure brought about the subsequent draining of Angelica Lake. In order to maintain traffic and commerce, the city of Reading and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (Penn DOT) rebuilt the Route 10 Bridge as part of an emergency action plan. The emergency action plan provided the opportunity for the reconstruction of the dam at a later date. During the City's planning process to determine the appropriateness of reconstructing the dam, Angelica Creek began to wind through the empty lakebed and developed a meandering stream channel at its historic elevation., The Mayor and Director of Public Works had a vision of transforming the site into an accessible public space that could provide more benefits to the community than a recreation lake. They envisioned the site as an urban community park facility providing both passive and active recreation and serving as an outdoor classroom for environmental education. They also felt that it was the City's social responsibility to preserve and protect the site in an environmentally and cost-effective manner., Today, Angelica Creek Park represents a natural outdoor classroom and recreational park. The Park, co-managed by Berks Nature and Alvernia University, provides an opportunity to experience a restored stream system consisting of a variety of aquatic habitats (ex. riffles and pools, and a floodplain containing wetland habitat that functions to store and filter stormflows. The Park also contains scenic trails that extend along Angelica Creek, provide access to the flowering meadows and wetlands, and link the park with Alvernia University and the Schuylkill River Trail system.