Looking east on the 200 block of Burns Street the day after the fire.
Burns Street was in Camden's Poet's Row neighborhood. The three blocks of houses that came to be known as Poet's Row first appear in the Camden City Directory of 1890–1891. Named for famous figures of English literature, the streets ran east and west from North 2nd Street, north of Erie Street. The first street north of Erie was Byron Street, followed by Burns Street and Milton Street. Only a few homes are noted in the 1890–1891 directory on Burns Street, at either end of the block, and only the 200 block is listed. This would indicate that Byron Street was built first, from the ends in, then Burns, and lastly Milton Street. A 300 block of Byron Street was built later, and also a 500 block of Byron Street.
North Camden in the 1890s offered many employment opportunities. Camden's industries were booming, and entrepreneurs came to Camden to set up shop. The new houses were snapped up mostly by tradesmen and skilled workers, with more than a few taking advantage of the short walks to the Vine Street and Shackamaxon ferries to commute back and forth to Philadelphia. The builder also made provisions for corner stores so the residents could shop conveniently. The sidewalks, like many of that era, were brick, and the streets were paved with cobblestone.
The Poet's Row neighborhood remained a vibrant place for decades, until, of course, after World War II, when the jobs began to leave North Camden. Perhaps it was poetic, with no pun intended, that the disaster that destroyed Poet's Row occurred when a recently closed factory building caught fire; the fire spreading to the homes, and in one hellish night destroying Milton Street, Burns Street, and the north side of Byron Street, where only two homes at the east end of the block, 241 and 243 Byron Street, were saved. Burns Street was no more. When dawn broke on August 24, 1972 Burns Street was gone.
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200 Block of Burns Street
200 Block of Burns Street — Occupants
Address and occupant records from city directories, 1890–1969.
Mrs. Mary Havlick & Albert Weller & Family — Albert & Jessie Havlick Weller, Russell Weller, Doris Weller
1947
Dan Hinkle
206 Burns Street — Frank Herman Keeley
World War I draft registration card, September 12, 1918
Frank Herman Keeley, 206 Burns Street. Age 41, born December 25, 1876. Water Dept. employee, working at 26 Collingswood Ave., Collingswood, N.J. Registered September 12, 1918, Local Board for Division No. 1, City of Camden.
208 Burns Street — Gregory Worona
World War II draft registration card, 1942
Gregory Worona, 208 Burns Street, Camden. Born February 16, 1885, Poland. Employer: J.R. Evans, 2nd & Erie St., Camden, N.J. Serial No. 0971.
On the night of August 23, 1972, a fire in the abandoned John R. Evans factory at North 2nd and Erie Streets spread through Poet's Row, destroying Burns Street, Milton Street, and the north side of Byron Street in a ten-alarm catastrophe that displaced hundreds of families.
Erie Street in North Camden runs from Beach Avenue to 9th Street, crossing Delaware Avenue, Point, Front, Segal, and the numbered streets 2nd through 9th.
On the night of August 23, 1972, a fire that started in the former John R. Evans Co. leather factory at North 2nd and Erie Streets destroyed Milton Street, Burns Street, and the north side of the 200 block of Byron Street — the complete obliteration of Camden's Poet's Row neighborhood.
Byron Street was part of North Camden's Poet's Row neighborhood, a working-class district whose streets were named for English literary figures. The 200, 300, and 500 blocks developed in the 1890s; the 200 block's north side was destroyed in the catastrophic Poet's Row fire of August 1972.
Vincent Ariel Tydeman was born in New Jersey on August 24, 1883, to Edmund and Sarah Tydeman, who emigrated from England to the U.S. in 1878 with their nine children. The Tydemans welcomed another child, Florence, just before the 1880 census.
Six Camden properties on Newton Avenue, Segal Street, Carpenter Street, 250 Burns Street, and Kaighn Avenue were ordered demolished as unfit for habitation and fire hazards.
Emergency room cases at Cooper Hospital and West Jersey Hospital on February 26, 1938, including Marie Cahill, 5, of 2168 Berwick Street, treated for brush burns on her hand.
Cooper Hospital and West Jersey Hospital emergency cases for February 26, 1938, including John Cool Jr., 7, of 218 Burns Street with a lacerated thumb.
Carl Barker was sentenced to state prison for 1½ to four years, while Adolph Lemm Jr. of 221 Burns Street received 60 days in county jail for the larceny of paint from a Federal Street store.
Carl Barker and Adolf Lemm Jr. of 211 Burns Street were arraigned on charges of breaking into a Federal Street paint store on New Year's Day and stealing paint brushes.
Jesse Brown stabbed in a quarrel on Taylor Avenue; his alleged assailant caught on Camden Bridge after Jennie Worona of 208 Burns Street told police where the knife was thrown.
Mrs. Harry Dounch of 218 Burns Street died in Burlington while on her way to visit her sister, after being taken in by a family who found her stricken on the street.
Twin brothers Russell and Albert Weller Jr., 5, and their baby sister Doris, 9 months, were rescued from a shed fire at 253 Burns Street by their father and great-grandmother Mrs. Mary Havlick, 74.
Leo O'Brien, 30, of 213 Burns Street was jailed for 30 days after repeatedly creating a disturbance near his home despite being taken home three times by detectives.
Local briefs from Camden including Julius Narshinski, 40, of 214 Burns Street treated at Cooper Hospital for heat exhaustion, a drowning in the Delaware, and a fatal accident at the Gibbstown powder plant.
The body of four-year-old Henry May Jr. of 208 Burns Street was found in a pond at North Second Street by John Dyer and Policeman Isaac Toy, after a collie dog led them to the spot.
