When the Reading Public Museum opened to the public at this location in 1928, John Nolen, a prominent landscape architect from Harvard University, transformed the grounds into a beautiful 25-acre park and arboretum. For decades the arboretum has been a focal point for strolls, Easter promenades, family gatherings, reunions and picnics. Its collection of indigenous and exotic trees and shrubs provides a living laboratory of botanical specimens that has attracted horticulturalists and other visitors from a wide area of Pennsylvania and beyond.