Boulevard was named for Decorated World War I admiral

Camden Courier-Post – September 6, 1999

By LAURIE STUART Courier-Post

Admiral Wilson.

Motorists who have driven through Camden instantly recognize the name, but most don’t know who he is.

Henry Braid Wilson was born in Camden in 1861. At the age of 15, he went to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he graduated in 1881. He soon began his illustrious Navy career, first as a training officer for apprentices, then serving in the West Indies, Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean and the Great Lakes.

Wilson saw action in the Spanish-American War as a lieutenant, and was”highly commended for coolness and bravery,” says a newspaper account.

In 1916, he was assigned to the command of the USS Pennsylvania, flagship of the commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet. The following year… when the United States entered World War I… he was assigned commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in France. For his “outstanding wartime services, Admiral Wilson was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal,the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor of France, Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus of Italy and the Grand Official of the Military Order of Avia of Portugal,” the newspaper account says. In 1919, Wilson became commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet. Two years later, he was appointed superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1923, he retired with the rank of rear admiral. In accordance with a Congressional Act, he was later given the rank of admiral.

Although Wilson retired to California, then to New York, his parents still lived in Camden, where his father, also Henry B. Wilson, was a member of the Camden Board of Education. In fact, the H. B. Wilson School at 9th and Florence streets is named for his father.

So when do Admiral Wilson and the boulevard cross paths? While some people think that was on Armistice Day in 1929, that’s not altogether true.

Bridge Entrance Road or Bridge Boulevard opened in 1925 as the main highway to the Ben Franklin Bridge. Four years later, Wilson returned as an honored guest of Camden and during Armistice Day ceremonies, officials decided to rename the highway “in honor of Camden’s great native son.”

So South Jerseyans came to know the highway as Admiral Wilson Boulevard. What they thought, however, didn’t ring true. While everyone was under the impression that the boulevard… which goes through Camden and Pennsauken… had been renamed in 1929, there was a slight wrinkle. In 1937, it was discovered that the name change had not been made official.

“When the Forest Hills development was made, Camden approved a change of name honoring one of Camden’s most renowned citizens, and later, during the administration of Mayor Winfield S.Price, a resolution was passed to make the name, as the then commissioners thought, official,” says a Nov. 18, 1937 Courier-Post article.

“But an ordinance to approve the change was necessary, and no ordinance was ever passed… So next Wednesday, when commissioners meet a day early on account of the Thanksgiving holiday, Commissioner Frank J. Hartmann will sponsor an ordinance which will make Bridge Boulevard Admiral Wilson Boulevard once and for all. Pennsauken Township is expected to do the same.”