CARMAN STREET apparently is named after William Carman, who owned a home at the Southwest Corner of Broadway and Federal Street. The house stood on an elevation fifteen or 20 feet above street grade. Erected in 1830, the house was leveled in 1902 to make way for the Munger and Long Department Store, which in the 1920s became the Stecker Department Store and in turn a J.C. Penney Department Store. In 1965 the building was torn down, and the Commerce Building, an eight-story office building with stores on the first floor, was erected on the site.
Carman Street originally was one block south of Federal Street, and ran from Broadway to South 8th Street. Carman Street picked up on the other side of the Cooper River, in what was originally Stockton Township, and eventually ran from 15th through to 31st Street, where it ends at Woodrow Wilson High School. The section of Carman Street east of South 27th Street, laid out prior to Camden’s annexation of Stockton Township, was originally known as Dover Street, as illustrated in a map of the area from 1914.
Various projects over the years in downtown Camden have erased Carman Street from the map in that part of town. The last of Carman Street in downtown Camden went with the demolition of the Midway Theater and the construction of the Walter Rand Transportation Center. This long-gone section of Carman Street was by and large residential. Of the few businesses in this, the “Center City” length of Carman Street, the most notable was Roy Steele’s Tavern at 560 Carman, which was in business from the 1930s through the 1960s.
In East Camden, Carman Street ran through an area that was primarily industrial. The Stelwagon Manufacturing Company at 1600 Carman was in the business of roofing materials, and the Bell & Evans Company had a large poultry processing facility at 1610–1644 Carman for decades. Other factories with addresses on Federal Street and the cross streets had frontage on Carman Street in this area including the Iowa Soap Company between 16th and 17th Streets, known since the 1960s as the Concord Chemical factory. Carman Street turned residential at 19th Street, and remains so for the rest of its length, with the exception of three or four small businesses.
The most interesting building, from a historical and architectural standpoint, sits at the corner of South 27th & Carman Streets. 60 South 27th was for many years a funeral home, run by a James R. Sudler. A boy who grew up in the neighborhood at 3038 Stevens Street, Clarence J. Eichel, later became a partner, and eventually the owner of this business. The Eichel Funeral Home later moved to Pennsauken NJ, and remains in business as of 2004.
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Carman Street Memories
by Harriet Lynne Agin-Stuhltrager
My family moved from “little” Cooper Street in East Camden to 624 Carman Street; about two blocks from Broadway.
On the corner of Broadway and Carman was the Broadway Theater. Looking across the street one could see the speed-line. Down a little ways was the popular Grand movie theater. One might say that the location was right in the heart of Camden. We were a couple of blocks from Market Street where both the Stanley and Savar movies were located.
The Court House and the City Hall is what separated Federal and Market streets. Later on in years the Court House was demolished and Lit Brothers replaced it on that spot. J.C. Penney’s was the best department store around back in 1940 and 1941 when I lived in that part of town.
It was difficult for me to accept leaving Cooper Street. To me, that was our house. Therefore I stayed at my girlfriend Cass’s house until I had to go home. Eventually, however, I would have to get registered for school. I got acquainted quickly with the neighborhood kids. They all went to Broadway School. Leaving St. Joe’s and the nuns I loved was devastating for me.
Mrs. Garrison was my home room teacher for grade 6. She was very neat, wore pretty earrings and lipstick, which made me more homesick for St. Joe’s. I had Mrs. Mauger for math, Mrs. Bastian for English, and Mrs. Stuart for history and art. I will never forget how kind and compassionate Mrs. Stuart was to me. She learned of my mother being very ill and in the hospital. She took me aside and tried to comfort me. I told her she should have been a nun. She told me she wasn’t Catholic.
A big day in my life. I knew the President was to be motoring down Broadway and I had to see him. Before going down the street I ran upstairs and put our flag out the window. Off I went. I stood in front of the speed-line as far out on the curb as I could get. The President was right in front of me. He was known for his beautiful friendly smile and it was directed right at me, as he waved. Probably everyone standing there with me thought the same thing in regards to their self.
FDR was running for his third term. His opponent was Wendell Wilkie. Us kids trotted along to school in a sing-song manner repeating over and over again:
Roosevelt in the White House waiting to be elected,
Wilkie in the trash can, waiting to be collected.
We didn’t go down Broadway to school, we went the back way, by Haddon Avenue. We passed the Cooper Hospital where I liked seeing the nurses coming out all dressed in white from head to toe. They were immaculate! On cool days they would wear a navy blue cape trimmed with red piping. They looked so professional, it made you think about becoming a nurse.
Across the street from the hospital was a Methodist Church. We went there a few times with the neighbor’s kids. They were good to our family. At Xmas and Thanksgiving they delivered baskets to our house. We also passed the armory on our way to school.
1942 would find me back at St. Joe’s. My mother had passed away. May 1941.
Carman Street from Broadway to Warren Street, 1961
Hugh Boyle & Family (foreman, Knickerbocker Ice Company; later Camden Police Department) — Hugh & Mary Boyle; Walter Boyle; Catherine Boyle; Ella Boyle
John Zander & Family (Camden Police Department) — John & Mary Zander. John Zander passed by 1924; his widow stayed until 1929, before moving to 723 New Street.
Joseph Wishart & Family — Joseph & Pearl Wishart; Rose Louise Wishart; Joseph P. Wishart
608 Carman Street
Year
Name
1926–1927
Franklin Pierce Alloway & Family — Franklin P. & Sarah L. Alloway; Sarah L. Alloway; Eleanor J. Alloway; Florence M. Alloway; Franklin C. Alloway; William R. Alloway
William H. 'Policy Bill' Smith & Family — William H. & Harriet Smith; William H. Smith Jr.; Virginia Smith; August D. Smith; Charles N. Smith; Sue G. Smith; Howard M. Smith
Harriet C. Smith & Family — William H. Smith Jr.; Augustus D. Smith; Sue G. Smith; Howard M. Smith; Clarence Smith; Walter Smith; Crawford M. Smith; Roy A. Smith
1906
Julius Lingsch — Saloon
1924–1930
Morris Waldman — Grocery
744 Carman Street
Year
Name
1894
Thomas J. Stanton & Family — Thomas J. & Annie Stanton; Thomas J. Stanton Jr.; William Stanton; Mary Stanton; John B. Stanton
Francis James McSwiggan & Family — Francis James & Margaret McSwiggan; Francis Joseph McSwiggan; William McSwiggan; Nancy McSwiggan; Margaret McSwiggan; Mary McSwiggan
2826 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924
(no listing)
2815 Carman Street, 19322814 Carman Street, 1966
2900 Block of Carman Street
2900 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924
(no listing)
2916 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924
(no listing)
2929 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2931 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2933 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2935 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2937 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2939 Carman Street
Year
Name
1924–1927
(no listing)
2916 Carman Street, 20112929–2931 Carman Street, March 2008
Russell J. Anderson (1897–1958) served with the Camden Fire Department for over 27 years, from December 1930 until his death in June 1958, assigned to Ladder Company 1 and later the Electrical Bureau.
Eleventh Street ran north from Market Street through to Pearl Street. Over time, North 11th Street was erased block by block, until only a short segment between Penn and Linden Streets survives. South 11th Street is a connecting road with no residential addresses.
The Clan Manufacturing Company, a janitorial supply firm, was founded in Camden in 1921 by brothers John T. Clancy and James Clancy. The business originally operated at 565 Carman Street.
George Denniston Haley (1848-1923) was a Civil War veteran of the 116th New York Volunteers who lost an arm at Port Hudson and later settled in Camden, New Jersey.
Henry Roy Steele, widely recognized in Camden, New Jersey, for his basketball prowess and as a tavern owner, left a lasting legacy despite his passing in 1946.
Howell Street runs through East Camden from 20th Street to 30th Street, parallel to the Pavonia railroad tracks. Homes were built by the 1880s, and several businesses operated here during Camden's industrial years, including Nick's Auto Parts and the Pavonia Ice & Coal Company. The first Catholic parish in East Camden, St. Joseph Church, stood at 25th and Howell Street.
by William Roles Kelly My Paternal Grandparents My Maternal Grandparents: Milton A. Kelly and Charlotte R. Kelly I don't remember a great deal about my grandfather, for he died in '32 when I was barely 4 years old.
Before Camden The Milton Kelly family's Camden story is similar to many others, in that they came to Camden prior to World War I and left during the Vietnam years.
Bridge Avenue was one of Camden's most notable thoroughfares, lying between Federal and Mickle Streets. By 1947 only the block east of South 8th Street remained, and that too has long since vanished.
Boyd Street runs through East Camden parallel to Marlton Avenue, from Carman Street to the Pennsauken city limits. Originally named Pfeiffer Street before 1924, it gained notoriety in the late 1980s and 1990s as part of the open-air drug market known as "the Alley."
Bank Street runs from Baird Boulevard and Carman Street southwest, crossing Marlton Pike, to Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Once the center of a notorious open-air drug market in the 1980s–90s, the street was redeveloped as part of the Peter J. McGuire Gardens housing project in the early 2000s.
31st Street spans from the Delaware River through Cramer Hill and East Camden, with no addresses outside Cramer Hill since the early 1920s. It is North 31st Street above Federal and South 31st below.
29th Street extends from the Delaware River through Cramer Hill and East Camden, running from River Road to Clinton Street. It is North 29th Street above Federal and South 29th below.
Clare Street is a one-block thoroughfare in South Camden, running from Pine Street to Division Street. Originally called Pine Avenue, it was renamed Clare Street between 1878 and 1890, then later renamed Jesthroe Hunt Sr. Lane in honor of a Camden firefighter who passed away in 2005.
Twentieth Street runs through Cramer Hill and East Camden, from Harrison Avenue to Bank Street, established by the 1887–1888 Camden City Directory. In 1954, fourteen homes with South 20th Street addresses were added when McGuire Gardens public housing was built; they were demolished and redeveloped in the 1990s.
Nineteenth Street runs from the Pavonia railroad switching yards across River Avenue north to Harrison Avenue in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, New Jersey.
Eighteenth Street runs from River Avenue north to just beyond Harrison Avenue in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, New Jersey. Originally called Dayton Avenue, it was renamed shortly after the 1900 Census.
Seventeenth Street runs through two separate sections of Camden: North 17th Street extends from Harrison Avenue to River Avenue through the Cramer Hill neighborhood, while South 17th Street runs from Federal Street southward across Carman Street to Admiral Wilson Boulevard in East Camden.
Haddon Avenue is one of Camden's oldest roads, dating to at least 1792 as a bridle path and incorporated as the Haddonfield & Camden Turnpike in 1839. It runs southeast from Federal Street to the city limits toward Collingswood, Haddon Township, and Haddonfield.
One of Camden's oldest and most storied streets, named after the Cooper family. Covers the full length from the waterfront to the 2000 block, including the Victor Talking Machine Company, Esterbrook Pen Company, Johnson Park, the Hotel Plaza, the Walt Whitman Hotel, the Elks Lodge, and East Camden's other Cooper Street.
Langham Avenue runs south through Parkside from Walnut Street to Baird Avenue; in the decades after World War I it was home to many prominent members of Camden's Jewish community.
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.
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.
Doreen Kelly Schwingler was born and raised at 3007 Carman Street in East Camden, attended Cramer Elementary and Woodrow Wilson High School, then moved to 3081 Carman Street with her husband. She recalls Dudley Grange park, the library, and a neighborhood that has since been lost.
The Heimlich Family lived at 2631 Carman Street from 1939 to 1967. Richard Heimlich recalls street hucksters, ice deliveries, walking to Garfield, Cramer, and Woodrow Wilson schools, and a childhood with very little crime in East Camden.
Daniel J. Cooperson and Barry Abrams, who met at Cramer School in East Camden in 1956, remained close friends for nearly a half-century — the subject of the book Barry and Dan, published in 2004.
Acting Battalion Chief Arthur Batten requested an arson investigation after two fires damaged bedrooms at 223 Milton Street in North Camden and injured firemen Richard Francesconi and Truman Maples.
Gerald M. Miller, 24, of the 2100 block of Berwick Street was held on $250 bail on charges of passing a red light and drunken driving after being stopped by police at Carman Street.
George W. Spicks, 85, who retired as a Camden hotel keeper in 1923, died at his home, 52 South Twenty-eighth Street. He had owned a hotel at Twenty-first and Federal Streets for 40 years. Survived by two daughters and one granddaughter.
Lt. Edward C. Hahn, a 22-year veteran of the Camden police department, collapsed and died of a heart attack outside a drugstore near his Third District station house on April 2, 1944.
Obituary of George B. Johnson, 80, who retired as a patrolman in the Camden Police Department in 1920 after 21 years of service. Funeral services were held at the home of his daughter on North Thirty-ninth Street, with burial at Harleigh Cemetery.
Camden Courier-Post - February 14, 1938 7 Arrested in Bingo Numbers Racket; 4 Seized in Betting Place Ten men and a woman were arrested in gambling raids over the weekend by Camden city and county authorities.
Hospital cases reported in Camden on February 14, 1938, including Ralph Williams of 413 North 29th Street treated at West Jersey Hospital for a laceration of the knee.
Benjamin Mifflin of 594 Carman Street was found not guilty in the Camden County Criminal Court of assault and battery by automobile in a 1937 hit-run accident on Stevens Street.
James Scavetta was sentenced to prison for participating in one of 22 suburban robberies engineered by Charles Lynch of 748 Carman Street, a prep-school student who turned burglar to fund his education.
Rose Louise Wishart, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wishart of 607 Carman Street, married John Ranson Lowther on January 12, 1938 at West Collingswood.
Charles Lynch, 17, of 748 Carman Street, a prep school student by day and burglar by night, confessed to robbing 22 suburban homes over three months to fund his education, later taking on a confederate before being caught.
Roy A. Smith, 51, a pensioned city fireman living at 607 Carman Street, died after a lengthy illness from heart condition. He was brother to former County Detective Howard M. Smith and former City Detective Walter Smith.
Group Gaining Weight in Vermont Mountains as They Clear Timber to Make Way for Jam, And Sleep Under Heavy Blankets Forty-three Camden city and county men with Company 2204, Citizens' Conservation Corps, are now located at Knapp Andrew Camp, Montpelier, Vt., word received here yesterday disclosed.
Man and Woman Struck by Lightning; Mercury Tumbles A violent electric storm, which paralyzed a South Camden woman, accompanied by a driving rain tumbled the mercury last night and ended, temporarily, the six-day heat wave.
Stanley Powell of 1256 Whitman Avenue, released in connection with the Camden Radio Condenser Company holdup, was rearrested and held in $3000 bail for robbing Marty's Olde Tappe Room at 1990 Federal Street in East Camden.
Ray Dilks of 1698 Carman Street and Ethel Papp of Pierce Avenue, Camden's only team in the Championship Marathon Dance Contest at Central Airport, were still going strong after 852 hours of dancing.
Elizabeth Glenville, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Glenville of 3065 Carman Street, married George E. Cunningham at St. Wilfred's Church on Saturday, June 4, 1932.
