2901 Adams Avenue — The O'Brien Family
This picture is looking east on North 29th Street towards Buren Avenue, in the 1950s. Left side, 1512—renters, 1510—Old Man Frye. Our house with white siding at 2901 Adams Avenue; 1356—the Shlams, 1354—the Kerbaughs. This was a twin, the two houses joined together. Last on left is 1348 North 29th Street, I don’t know who lived there. The last cross street is Buren Avenue. The big house on the corner of North 29th and Buren, upper right in this picture, is 2904 Buren Avenue, the Hawk family.
— Patsy O’Brien Maggiulli, January 2008
I have lived in Cramer Hill since 1943. We first lived on Harrison Avenue. Then we had to move, because someone bought our rented house. We moved to 2901 Adams Avenue in 1947. Here is a picture of our house. It was not a very nice house. It was a summer house when the Delaware River was clean enough to go swimming in, but it was the only one available at the time. My Pop fixed it up, had it shingled in white. My Father was William C. O’Brien, mother Thelma, my name is Patsy, brother Bill, and brother Jim. I lived there till I got married in 1959. My family still lives in South Jersey. My father passed away in 1997. My Mom and brothers are still living. I have a lot of happy memories living on Adams Avenue. The streets weren’t paved. A great place for kids to play. We went to Sharp School.
This is my Mom, Thelma O’Brien, in the back yard. The Dickerson’s house and ours were attached. We bought their side, and Pop tore through to make it bigger. As you can see it was a real mess. Pop did all the work himself. Us kids helped out as much as we could. As a result us kids knew how to handle tools. We’ve become quite handy, because Pop taught us.