Railroad Avenue

RAILROAD AVENUE ran from Kaighn Avenue to Jefferson Street on the west side of the railroad tracks as late as 1969. In time Railroad Avenue between Kaighn and Jackson Street disappeared, the blocks between Atlantic Avenue and Jackson Street being absorbed by Camden Iron & Metal.

Early in the 20th century a rail station existed along the tracks at just to the south of Van Hook Street, and the one block of houses that had Railroad Avenue as a an address lay between Van Hook and Ferry Avenue. Today if you are traveling east on Van Hook Street, look to the right just before the railroad tracks… you can turn right, but only travel about 100 feet down what was once Railroad Avenue before coming to an earthen barrier to prevent vehicle traffic along the tracks. A similar barrier exists on the Ferry Avenue side.

If you walk along the tracks in the 1700 block of Railroad Avenue, all you will see as of February 2004 are two street light poles with street light fixtures that no longer work, a chain link fence that once surrounded 1743 Railroad Avenue, a small section of brick wall that once belonged to that address, and an iron post in the middle of the block that also once was part of a chain link fence. Other than some depressions in the ground where houses once stood, and one or two mounds of what may have been demolition debris, there is no other physical evidence of the homes that once stood there.