[1][2] It was founded by Charles Evans (1768-1847), a son of Quaker parents and native of Philadelphia who became a prominent attorney and philanthropist in Reading during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

As those men resigned or died, they were succeeded by: Isaac Eckert, Adam Leize, James Milholland, James B. McKnight, G. A. Nicolls, William L. DeBorbon, Charles H. Hunter, J. Pringle Jones, Horatio Trexler, William M. Hiester, Augustus F. Boas, Warren J. Woodward, George D. Stitzel, Henry S. Eckert, John S. Pierson, Hiester Clymer, Henry M. Keim, Thomas D. Stichter, Daniel Ermentrout, Edwin F. Smith, and D.

"[10] Visitors arriving via the main gate on Centre Avenue enter through a large, sandstone, Gothic Revival arch, which was erected in 1852, and pass by the grave of the cemetery's founder, Charles Evans, above-ground crypts, obelisks and other monuments to Civil War-era soldiers and other historical figures from Berks County.

[13] A Yale University law school graduate who became known for his anti-slavery views during the American Civil War, Strong had served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1851 and as a Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prior to his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870, a tenure which included his service on the Electoral Commission tasked with resolving America's disputed presidential election of 1876.

According to the August 22 Washington, D.C.'s Morning Times:[14][15] The body of ex-Justice William Strong arrived in Reading last night and was taken to the chapel in Charles Evans Cemetery.

The choir of Olivet Presbyterian Church sang "Lead, kindly light," and "Abide with Me," favorite hymns of the deceased.In 1927, cemetery administrators opened a Tudor-style office building, followed by a columbarium in 1939.

Built with separate chapel and crematorium sections and a bell tower, the columbarium facility is situated on the cemetery's east side near Perry Street.

Bronze crypts, for family and individual use, line the walls.The Chapel Garden Museum and Hillside Mausoleum were added, respectively, in 1972 and 1981, and the crematorium's cremation chambers were updated in 1993.

As of 2018, those purchases had expanded the grounds to 119 acres, made accessible by seven miles of paved roads, and beautified by flowering shrubbery and more than 2,200 trees, many of which are old-growth and massive in size.

[20]) During the late 1880s, the remains of more than two hundred American Civil War veterans were also interred at Charles Evans after having been exhumed and relocated from potter's fields across Berks County.