Historic Camden, NJ

The Camden Home for Friendless Children was established in 1865. By the 1890’s the institution had located at 915 Haddon Avenue in Camden NJ.

The factory at 602 North 10th Street belonged to the U.S. Gasket Company at the time the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled.

Harry Kaufman opened his iconic store in 1951.

In the beginning Camden was just settlement of a few farms and a couple ferries to and from Philadelphia run by the Cooper Family.

In the early 1930s The Owl’s Studio was located in Morgan’s Hall, a building that stood for many years at 418 Market Street. I know little else about the place. The band mentioned below was out of Trenton NJ. The Hotel Hildebrecht, pictured below, was a popular spot in Trenton, and on the outside appears similar to Camden’s Walt Whitman Hotel. Sadly it met a similar fate, and was razed in the 1980s.

The SIXTH WARD REPUBLICAN CLUB was active in Camden through at least 1947. Camden politics were a peculiar affair in the 1920s.

The Reynolds Leather Company was one of many business that were involved in the processing and manufacture of leather goods. The business operated out of a two story factory designed by noted architect Joseph N. Hettel at 816 Division Street.

William Joyce Sewell was born on December 6, 1835 in Ireland. Orphaned at a young age, he emigrated to the United States in 1851. He was for a time employed in mercantile business in New York City, made several voyages as a sailor on merchant vessels, afterward engaged in business in Chicago, IL. He moved to Camden NJ in 1860.

Arthur Holl was born in New Jersey in April 17, 1887. By 1918 he operated a large funeral home at 811 Cooper Street in Camden NJ. By 1920 he lived at and operated a second business at 1401-01 Princess Avenue in the new and fashionable Parkside section of Camden. He later sold that location to a Jewish funeral director, David Berschler. By 1930 he was living in Haddonfield NJ, and by 1947, with son Earl Holl had moved to and set up a second funeral home at 15 West End Avenue in Haddonfield NJ, and Earl Holl was also serving as the Camden County Coroner.

Camden’s oldest radio station dates back to September 1925 when it signed on as WFBI at 1270 AM under the ownership of Robert Galvin. The city government became involved soon afterward. The official dedication of the now municipally-owned radio station, rechristened WCAM, occurred in Convention Hall, occurred on March 29, 1926. The station moved, sometime after 1931, to the 17th floor of the new City Hall Building at South 6th and Federal Street. Eventually it was permanently assigned 1310 on the AM band as its frequency.

JOHNNY TOOMEY was the ring name of Philip John Carlin Jr., one of the three brothers from Camden NJ who fought under the surname Toomey, the others being his older half-brothers Daniel “Danny” Toomey and William “Billy” Toomey. Another brother, Jake Carlin, fought as an amateur, and apparently the Toomey boys’ father had also fought professionally.

The Merchants Trust was organized in November of 1911. It was a small bank that catered to Camden’s business community, and was one of many small and medium sized banks active in the 1910s and 1920s. From its founding through his death in 1924 the president of the Merchants Trust was Charles Reynolds. He was succeeded in that position by George Frey. E.G. Robinson served as vice-president all through this time. The new bank acquired the house of Casper T. Sharpless at 18 Broadway, and remodeled it for use as a bank. The Merchants Trust opened its doors for business on March 4, 1912.