Category: Historical Accounts
Various historical accounts, texts, and reader submissions, not including News Articles, which are in another category.
At a meeting in the First Presbyterian Church on 5th Street in Camden in the Autumn of 1864, Mr. and Mrs. Earl J. Atkinson inspired other dedicated, community-spirited citizens to venture into a project with them.
In the beginning Camden was just settlement of a few farms and a couple ferries to and from Philadelphia run by the Cooper Family.
The first clock appeared above City Hall in 1876. Camden’s new City Hall opened early that year, although the clock was not yet in place. The first town clock in the tower of the City Hall was placed in position in May of 1876. It cost $3,575, and rang out the hours for the first time on May 26, 1876.
I grew up at 422 Mickle Street and left in March 1953 to join the Air Force. At that time there was very little crime in the neighborhood. Jersey Joe Walcott lived at 331 Mickle Street, when he became World Heavy Weight Champion.
Walkathons and Dance Marathons became popular during the Depression years. Promoter W.E. Tebbets set up many of these events all over the country, bringing his own bands and entertainers along to the event. After a successful walkathon at Atlantic City in 1932, Tebbets arranged for a similar contest to be held in the Camden area early in 1933, using one of the hangars at Central Airport as his venue.
In the late 1920s, Medford Lakes was a vacation community in the New Jersey pines, some 18 miles southeast of Camden. One of its prominent citizens, Leon Todd, believed that a golf course was needed in order to provide residents and summer visitors with a complete range of recreational and sporting opportunities. In 1929 the Medford Lakes Development Company acquired the 115-acre Shrider farm. Alex Findlay, scarcely an unknown quantity in southern New Jersey, was brought in to lay out nine holes. His skillful use of both water and trees gave the course, though on the short side and with few changes in elevation, both interest and charm. It opened for play in 1930.
The history of a Mt Ephraim hotel reveals a story that could have been script for Hollywood movie staring James Cagney or Edward G Robinson.
The Camden Police’s first motorized Paddy Wagon sold by and parked in front of Camden’s first car/truck dealership, NJ Auto & Supply Co, 38-46 Delaware Ave. Around 1915.
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