c. 1883, Furness and Evans(?). 245 N. 5th St.
North 5th Street was a fashionable neighborhood with several distinguished houses. Here Frank Furness's hand is evident in the broad planar surfaces of brownstone set into an industrial brick front and contrasting with the projecting central bay. The bay is supported on brackets on which are carved an ivy design that is nearly identical to the brackets of the side elevation of the contemporary Robert M. Lewis house in Philadelphia ( PH103). Furness was active in Reading in the 1880s, designing 125 railroad-related buildings for the Reading Railroad and the city's first Boys High School and Reading Hospital (both demolished).