Chew Court


Chew Court, a diminutive thoroughfare, extended north from the 400 Block of Mount Vernon Street, accessible through an arch flanked by 407 and 409 Mount Vernon Street. It derived its name from William J.” Billy” Chew, the proprietor of a nearby saloon. The emergence of Chew Court in City Directories can be traced back to 1871. Curiously, only two structures ever bore a Chew Court address – #1 inhabited by the Louis Smith family and #2 by the William Jones family.

The Christopher A. Bergen School, which opened in the autumn of 1891 and was named after prominent Camden lawyer Christopher Augustus Bergen, found its place on the northern edge of the 400 block of Mount Vernon Street, near Chew Court.

Chew Court appeared in City Directories between 1887-1888, 1888-1889, and 1890-1891. Smith and Jones remained residents of the same houses during the 1900 census, with an interesting development: after the 1890 Directory, #1 Chew’s Court became 1016, and #2 Chew’s Court transformed into 1014.

By the compilation of the 1904 City Directory, both families had moved from Chew Court. The court garnered attention in local newspapers during the 1890s and 1900s due to arrests linked to lottery law violations, commonly referred to as “policy” or later as the “numbers racket.”

In September 1932, E. Allen Hughes, a reporter for the Courier-Post, authored a three-part series exploring the narrow streets, alleys, courts, and spaces of Camden, which included Chew Court.

Chew Court vanished from records and memory, absent from the 1924 and 1947 Camden City Directories. Its existence was completely erased when the Ulysses S. Wiggins School was erected.


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  • Chew Court

    Chew Court

    Chew Court, a diminutive thoroughfare, extended north from the 400 Block of Mount Vernon Street, accessible through an arch flanked by 407 and 409 Mount Vernon Street. It derived its name from William J.” Billy” Chew, the proprietor of a nearby saloon. The emergence of Chew Court in City Directories can be traced back to…

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