Tag

Poets Row

William P. Spencer, World War II draft registration card
People

William P. Spencer

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.

·4 min read
Looking east on the 200 block of Burns Street the day after the Poet's Row fire
Streets

Burns Street

Burns Street was in Camden's Poet's Row neighborhood, named for Robert Burns. Three blocks of row homes built in the 1890s, all destroyed in the catastrophic Poet's Row fire of August 1972.

·3 min read
Milton Street Parade - August 15, 1942
Streets

Milton Street

Was the northernmost street in Camden's Poet's Row.

·2 min read
Poet's Row fire, August 23, 1972 — view looking east on Byron Street, fire started in John R. Evans Co. factory
Historical Accounts

The Death of Poet's Row — The 1972 Fire

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.

·2 min read
Poets-Row-Fire-1-1972-08-23
Streets

Byron Street

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.

·5 min read
Earl-Stopfer-Draft-Card
People

Earl Stopfer

Earl Stopfer, born on March 29, 1899, in Philadelphia, PA, initially lived with his grandmother, Elaine Basert, in 1910.

·2 min read
Poets-Row-Fire-1-1972-08-23
Poets Row

Poet's Row

Poet's Row, the Byron, Burns and Milton Street homes in North Camden built in the 1890s and largely destroyed by a catastrophic 1972 fire.

·4 min read
Jenny & Vincent Tydeman
People

Vincent Ariel Tydeman

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.

·7 min read