Thirty-Second Street runs from the Delaware River south, across River Road to the Pavonia railroad switching yards, bisecting the Cramer Hill neighborhood. It starts again in East Camden at Lemuel Avenue and goes to Federal Street, interrupted only by the railroad tracks at Rosedale Avenue. From Federal Street it runs to the city limits at Highland Avenue.
As with all numbered streets in Camden, all buildings north of Federal Street carry a North 32nd Street address, while those south of Federal carry a South 32nd Street address.
In the 1930s, at the corner of Westfield Avenue and 32nd Street stood an acre of cultivated land with an old house called the “Mansion.” This was razed to make room for the Westfield Acres public housing project, and the land was purchased for $6,000. In the late 1960s a 10-story high-rise building for senior citizens was also built on this site. Westfield Acres was razed in 2000 and a neighborhood of new homes, known as Baldwin’s Run, now occupies the site.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the corner of North 32nd and Saunders Street—an exit from Westfield Acres—became one of the most notorious drug corners in East Camden.
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Sewage Disposal Plant at Thirty-Second Street & Farragut Avenue, 1931
HERE IS ANOTHER of Camden's public works—the sewage disposal plant. Beautifying of the surroundings at Thirty-second street and Farragut avenue gives it more the appearance of a recreation spot.View transcription
HERE IS ANOTHER of Camden's public works—the sewage disposal plant. Beautifying of the surroundings at Thirty-second street and Farragut avenue gives it more the appearance of a recreation spot.
HERE IS ANOTHER of Camden's public works—the sewage disposal plant. Beautifying of the surroundings at Thirty-second street and Farragut avenue gives it more the appearance of a recreation spot.
124 North 32nd Street — 100 Block of North 32nd Street
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1952
George Beitzel & Family
1952
George Beitzel Jr.
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Benjamin Simon; Ernest Santanella; Benjamin Dzick; Mitchell H. Cohen
118 North 32nd Street
118 North 32nd Street — 100 Block of North 32nd Street
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No information available
116 North 32nd Street
116 North 32nd Street — 100 Block of North 32nd Street
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No information available
Leon Todd Development, 1925
Westfield, Merriel & Rosedale Avenues at 32nd Street
These homes were built in the early 1920s by real estate developer Leon Todd, who had offices nearby on Westfield Avenue. Leon Todd also built other homes in East Camden and later developed Medford Lakes.
These pages show the many varieties of beautiful ‘Air-Lite’ and ‘Air-Wa’ homes on the outskirts of Camden. These pictures tell their own story of attractiveness, coziness, and unique fittings. This locality is especially attractive having ideal living conditions, good transportation by bus, trolley, and auto.
3100 block of Westfield Avenue, April 1925.3100 block Westfield Avenue, 1925.Westfield Avenue east from North 32nd Street, 1925.North 32nd Street from Rosedale Avenue, 1925.Corner of Westfield Ave. & N. 32nd Street, 1925.North 32nd Street from Westfield Avenue, 1925.North 32nd Street from Rosedale Avenue, February 2004.North 32nd Street from Rosedale Avenue, February 2004.North 32nd Street from Rosedale Avenue, February 2004.Rear of North 32nd Street row homes, 1925.Interior of a home, 1925.
200 Block of North 32nd Street
City directory records, 1896–1947. The 200 and 300 blocks were razed circa 2000; new homes known as Carpenter's Hill were built through the St. Joseph's Carpenter's Society and the Housing Authority of Camden.
245 North 32nd Street
245 North 32nd Street — 200 Block of North 32nd Street
114 South 32nd Street — 100 Block of South 32nd Street
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1913–1972
Bowman L. & Margaret A. Johnson Hargis; Catherine Hargis Johnson; Hazel L. Hargis Gubbing; Margaret J. Hargis Patri; Verna S. Hargis Leone; Edgar M. Hargis; William W. Hargis; Charles Russell Hargis (electrician at Campbell Soup)
1972
Bowman L. Hargis & Family
1913–1972
Bowman & Margaret A. Johnson Hargis
1972
Bowman & Margaret A. Johnson Hargis
120 South 32nd Street
120 South 32nd Street — 100 Block of South 32nd Street
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1932
Henry A. & Evelyn Clinger Clark; Elmer Y. Gaskill
121 South 32nd Street
121 South 32nd Street — 100 Block of South 32nd Street
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1914
Charles W. Chandler (conductor)
1914
Harry W. & Mattie Chandler (plasterer)
127 South 32nd Street
127 South 32nd Street — 100 Block of South 32nd Street
251 South 32nd Street — 200 Block of South 32nd Street
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252 South 32nd Street
252 South 32nd Street — 200 Block of South 32nd Street
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No information available
Philadelphia Inquirer, March 17, 1918View transcription
Mrs. Mary Green, 74 years old, of 212 South Thirty-second street, died suddenly Friday night, Coroner Pratt giving a certificate of death as being due to apoplexy.
Mrs. Mary Green, 74 years old, of 212 South Thirty-second street, died suddenly Friday night, Coroner Pratt giving a certificate of death as being due to apoplexy.
Corner of 32nd & Pierce
Cramer Hill Memories — Facebook, August 2012
Corner store at 32nd & Pierce Avenue, circa 1950s.
Corner store at 32nd & Pierce Avenue, circa 1950s. Known at various times as Walt’s, Roxxy’s, Frank & Jenny’s, Bob & Dee’s, and Pine’s. Photo posted by Eileen Wallace to the Cramer Hill Memories Facebook group, August 2012.
Raymond H. "Mike" Stark Sr. served 27 years in the Camden Police Department, appointed April 11, 1917 and retired on pension May 15, 1944, serving as traffic officer, district detective, patrolman and sergeant, and as a sergeant of the Camden Bridge police during a 1926 leave of absence (his 1953 obituary says he organized that force).
Sergeant John Joseph Clynes Jr. (1894–1919) of 60 North 32nd Street in East Camden was a Victor Talking Machine Company pressman drafted in 1918 and assigned to the 153rd Depot Brigade at Camp Dix. He contracted tuberculosis in service and died at Base Hospital No. 8 in Otisville, New York on June 24, 1919, aged 25.
William Philip Spencer (1890–1946) served in the Camden Fire Department from 1925 until his death in 1946, promoted to Captain on April 2, 1940. A World War I veteran who served in France, he was a charter member of the Box 315 Association and won a three-cornered fight for vice president of the Camden Police and Firemen's Association in 1933.
Harry Mailahn (1926–1971) was a Camden firefighter assigned to Engine Company 9 from his appointment in January 1951 until his death in 1971. A Navy veteran of World War II, he lived at 2924 Royden Street in East Camden.
John Joseph O'Neil (1909-1982) was born in Camden and grew up on North 22nd Street in East Camden. Appointed to the Camden Fire Department on July 27, 1938, he served 30 years - taking time away during World War II to serve in the United States Coast Guard - was promoted to District Chief on April 1, 1961, and retired on pension on November 1, 1968.
Harry W. Horst (c. 1873–1949) was one of Camden's first hardwood floor contractors, establishing his business in the city in 1910. He lived and worked out of his homes at 1240 North 19th Street and later 1021 North 32nd Street in the Cramer Hill section of Camden.
William Stanley Ablett Village is a 306-unit public housing project at River Road and State Street in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, built by the Housing Authority of the City of Camden during World War II and named for a Camden soldier killed in action in France during World War I.
Earl Wright joined the Camden police force in 1928, serving as a motorcycle patrolman and later Sergeant. He is best known as the officer who arrested mass murderer Howard Unruh on September 6, 1949.
Adams Avenue, in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, was named after President John Quincy Adams, running northeast from North 28th Street to the site of the former Tucker shipyard.
Herman F. Niessner was born on March 8, 1891, in Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents. His father, Frederick Niessner, worked as a machinist for Baldwin Locomotive in Philadelphia and moved the family to the Cramer Hill section of Camden in 1894.
Bergen Avenue runs through the Cramer Hill section of Camden from Cleveland Avenue north to Farragut Avenue near the Delaware River, likely named for Martin V. Bergen or Christopher A. Bergen, prominent Camden legal figures in the late 1800s.
Thirty-Sixth Street runs from the Delaware River south, across River Road, to Federal Street, and forms Camden's northern border with Pennsauken Township at intervals along its length. It became part of Camden when Stockton Township was annexed in 1899, and had been known in Pennsauken as Cove Avenue into the 1890s.
These pages show the many varieties of beautiful "Air-Lite" and "Air-Wa" homes on the outskirts of Camden. These pictures tell there own story of attractiveness, coziness, and unique fittings.
27th Street runs from the Delaware River through Cramer Hill and East Camden to Marlton Avenue. Originally called Fulton Street before the 1899 annexation of Stockton Township, it was one of the main thoroughfares of the neighborhood and home to football star Mike Rozier.
I just reviewed the Bergen Avenue site again. Ok, so my parents bought 1021 Bergen from the Kennedy family in 1953. My parents lived in the white house, one house from Engles Lot.
Jill Petris Lamparella's memoir of growing up in East Camden in the 1950s — 139 North 32nd Street, Roles Court Apartments, Dudley Grange Park, the Henry H. Davis School, and the shops of 27th Street.
We moved to Bergen "Avenue" in 1953. We lived at 1021 Bergen Avenue which is still there. There used to be a red house [1017 Bergen Avenue — ed.] next to the lot which was Engle's Bar. The lot belonged to the bar.
Bowman L. Hargis, 82, a retired Campbell Soup electrician of 114 South 32nd Street, died April 18, 1972. Services were held at the Bradley Funeral Home on Federal Street with Masonic rites by Trimble Lodge #117.
Nine of Camden's newest firemen, including Wayne Kraft of 1052 North 35th Street, graduated at fire headquarters at 3rd and Arch Streets and received their company assignments.
A two-alarm fire tore through the Cartun Hardware Store warehouse at 14 South 35th Street on the night of December 21, 1961, fed by an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 gallons of paint. One Engine Company 11 hoseman was hurt, and the alarm was sounded by a teenager who spotted the smoke while listening to Christmas carols outdoors.
A March 1954 Quaranta & Bloom classified advertisement offering new all-brick homes with stone fronts at 32nd and Mickle in East Camden for $9,850 with FHA and VA financing.
Raymond H. "Mike" Stark Sr., 59, of 141 North 32nd Street, a retired Camden city policeman appointed in 1917 and pensioned in 1944, died of a heart condition in Cooper Hospital. He organized the Camden Bridge police force during a 1926 leave of absence and was a charter member and secretary of the Retired Police and Firemen's Association of Camden County.
Evelyn Mailahn of 243 South 32nd Street was fined $50 in Haddon Township municipal court for letting an unlicensed driver use her car; the driver, Hampton Williams of Runnemede, was fined the same amount after the car struck a truck.
Howard A. Groth of 242 South 32nd Street, a Camden resident of 40 years and a member of Camden Lodge 15 F&AM, died in West Jersey Hospital in April 1953.
Mrs. George Beitzel of 124 North 32nd Street shot her husband, a Pennsylvania Railroad policeman, in the arm and fired at their 15-year-old son, who ducked and escaped. Judge Benjamin Dzick refused her guilty plea and held her for the grand jury.
Heart Attack Kills Louis Schlamm; Thrown into Water as Boat Capsizes Avalon, Aug. 14 — Louis J. Schlamm , 55, veteran Camden city detective, died of a heart attack while fishing in Townsend's Inlet near here today.
The Camden Housing Authority announced U.S. Housing Authority approval of a $1,566,000 defense housing project of 306 units on the south side of East State Street between Cooper Creek and River Avenue. Camden Courier-Post, January 17, 1942.
John G. Maxwell of Pennsauken topped the State Civil Service promotion examination for property supervisor of the Camden County Welfare Board; Fred L. Strong of 133 North Thirty-second Street placed second.
Public Safety Commissioner Mary W. Kobus placed Junior Fire Captain William P. Spencer of 38 South Thirty-second Street on temporary retirement at half pay in April 1941 after illness left him unable to work.
Kindergarten, first-grade and February graduating pupils of the H. C. Sharp School at Thirty-second Street and Hayes Avenue received certificates in February 1936 for perfect attendance since the school year opened, along with more than a hundred other pupils.
Two Figured in Wounding of Cop and Slaying of Pal Four members of the notorious North Cramer Hill gang, two of them participants in the robbery in which one bandit was killed after wounding a city detective, were sentenced to state prison terms by Judge Samuel M. Shay yesterday.
Camden Courier-Post - February 10, 1930 A parade is being planned by the Patriotic Order of Sons of America for Washington's Birthday, when a flag will be presented to the new Woodrow Wilson Junior High School by Camp No. 25.
Third District police sought James W. Clymer to tell him his home at 60 North Thirty-second Street — which he had left for Merchantville two days earlier — had been broken into and the furniture left behind damaged.
Mounted Policeman Harold Hubbs of 201 North 27th Street returned to duty after his horse stumbled and threw him during a Saturday-morning chase near the Harry Sharp School, but his injured leg forced him home after two hours.
A Philadelphia Inquirer death notice for George A. Lange, 52, husband of Elsie Lange, who died May 28, 1922 in Detroit; the funeral was held from his father's home at 10 South 32nd Street in Camden.
Charles R. Evans, 19, of 139 South Thirty-second Street in East Camden, broke through the ice on the lake at Forest Hill Park and drowned while 300 fellow skaters looked on. Four would-be rescuers — Harry Haas, Graham Wishart, Wilbur Crane and Matthew Yingling — were dragged from the freezing water by a park guard and a policeman.
George Laws and Edward Thomas, 22, of 413 North 28th Street, admitted ripping a water pipe from a vacant house at 22nd and Howell Streets and attempting to rob the home of Frederick Voigt at 222 North 32nd Street, where they were caught by a neighbor.
Elsie M. Fisher and William B. Craig of East Camden were married in June 1904 at the bride's home, 3024 Federal Street, by the Rev. George T. Harris of the Asbury M. E. Church.
Jennie A. Craig of 206 South Thirty-second Street was attacked on Federal Street in January 1904, knocked down a six-foot embankment and choked; her assailant fled when her screams continued, and her brother's search led police to a clue.