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Camden Facts

Interesting and Noteworthy Occurrences in the first 175 years of Camden's history. Assembled by the South Jersey Tourism Corporation, 2002

1681 The Cooper Family, one of the founding families of Camden and Camden County , first purchases land on the south bank of Deer (now Cooper River ) Creek.

1687 The first ferry service between Philadelphia and Camden , Royden’s, is authorized.

1726 Pomona Hall is built by Joseph Cooper in 1726 and remains in the Cooper family until the city acquires it in 1897.

1770 The Joseph Kaighn House, also known as South Ferry Hotel , is built.

1773 Camden Town is laid out by Jacob Cooper. The city is named for Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, Chief Justice and lord High Chancellor in Britain. He opposed Britain ’s policy during the Revolutionary War.

1778 The Battle of Camden occurs in the area of present day 6th and Market.

1800 Howland Croft, Sons & Co., Linden Worsted Mills, located at Broadway & Jefferson is established. At one time the mill employed approximately 400 men.

1801 First house of worship buit at Mt. Ephraim and Mt. Vernon Avenues.

1810 The first steam ferry boat runs between Camden and Philadelphia, named the “ Camden.”

1812 Edward Sharp House, Cooper St., a tremendous example of late federal period architecture, is built.

1817 The Gloucester Farmer begins weekly circulation. It was the first newspaper published in Camden.

1822 Isaac Mickle is born. During his short life (1822-1855), Mickle was a lawyer in Camden and Philadelphia, a local political leader, editor of two weekly newspapers, a violinist and, most notably, a historian who kept detailed accounts of life in the 1830s and ’40s.

1828 Camden is incorporated into a city in February.

1828 Construction on Camden City Hall begins.

1828 The first mayor of Camden is sworn in; Samuel Laning served from 1828-1830.

1829 First City Hall is erected. It was demolished in 1878.

1832 Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church on Spruce Street was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Established in the early 1800’s it moved to its current building in 1832.

1832 First fire insurance company, the Camden Insurance Company, is chartered. ??? is this the same as Fire Insurance association???

1832 Street names changed by Ordinance: King to Front, Queen to Second, White Hall to Third, Cherry to Fourth, Cedar to Fifth, Pine to Sixth.

1833 Richard Fetters purchases the land lying between Line and Cherry and Third and the Delaware River from the Kaighn family and founds Fettersville.

1834 Davy Crockett: Legendary Frontiersman visits the city of Camden.

1836 Camden and Philadelphia Steamboat Ferry Company is incorporated.

1836 Old Camden Cemetery is founded.

1838 The Camden and Woodbury Railroad & Transportation Company, from Camden to Woodbury, was opened to the public in January.

1842 Camden Mutual Fire Insurance Company is chartered.

1844 Camden County is formed from the townships of Camden, Waterford, Newton, Union, Delaware, Washington and Gloucester, all formerly part of Gloucester County.

1845 Camden Water Works is incorporated.

1846 The Camden Medical Society is founded by ???

1848 After three prior elections proved unsatisfactory, a fourth election named Camden City as County Seat by a sweeping margin.

1848 Dempsey Butler moves to Camden. He invested in real estate???

1848 The Evergreen Cemetery Company was incorporated in February.

1849 The first Building and Loan Association in Camden was organized in May.

1850 Cooper’s Point Ferry Company is incorporated.

1850 John Leadbeater, Jr. a Camden song-writer publishes, “The Camden Girls,” “Camden Lyrics,” “ Jersey Blues,” and “Camden Assurance.”

1851 The first cobbled pavement is laid on Front St. between Market & Arch.

1851 A supplement to the city charter allows the city to levy taxes for the first time.

1852 The first gas works is founded and city streets are lit by gas on Christmas night for the first time.

1853 Camden City Medical Society is formed in June.

1854 The Kaighn School, at Newton Avenue and Chestnut Street, upon land donated by the Kaighn family, was the first school building erected by the Board of Education.

1854 The public school system was inaugurated in Camden, upon the organization of the Board of Education of the City of Camden.

1855 The New Jersey Agricultureal Society holds its first State Fair in Camden at the Diamond Cottage at 6th & Cooper.

1856 First African American Baptist Church is organized.

1857 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church is organized.

1858 Philip J. Gray published Camden’s first daily paper.

1858 Esterbrook Steel Pen Factory is established at the foot of Cooper Street, the first of its kind in America.

1859 First Catholic Church opens at 5th & Taylor.

1861 Henry Braid Wilson is born in Camden. Wilson was a decorated World War I Admiral.

1862 Thomas Dudley, a Camden lawyer is appointed consul to England by President Lincoln.

1862 America’s first nickel works is established by Joseph Wharton.

1864 Johnson Cemetery is granted to Jacob Johnson, Anthony Collings, and Luke Derrockson. It is the resting place for many important African-Americans, among over 107 black veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War One.

1865 The Camden Home for Friendless Children is incorporated and formally opened on May 30 of the same year.

1866 The first department store, the Baker-Flick Company opens, serving Camden on Market Street near 3rd Street into the 1930s.

1868 The Camden Police begin wearing uniforms in December.

1868 West Jersey Homeopathic Medical Society was organized in May.

1869 A paid Fire Department is established in September.

1869 Joseph Campbell, founds Campbell Soup and develops condensed soups under the direction of Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist.

1871 The New Jersey Woman’s Suffrage Association holds a convention in Morgan’s Hall.

1871 First street car runs from ???

1872 P. T. Barnum’s early traveling show exhibits on Broadway below Ridge Ave.

1873 Camden Post newspaper ,located at Front and Federal Streets, issues its first edition. This was the first Camden daily to enjoy enough success to engage in continual publication.

1873 Camden, Gloucester and Mt. Ephraim Railroad begins service. The narrow-gauge railway was completed to Mt. Ephraim in 1878.

1873 In November, Camden saw the beginnings of unionization when “The Workingmen’s Association of the City and County of Camden” is organized.

1873 The city unveils the Soldier’s Monument in old Court House yard. It is later moved next to old City Hall.

1873 The Board of Trade in Camden is first established. It disbanded after a few years and was reestablished in 1888, leading eventually to the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce.

1873 Noted poet Walt Whitman moves to Camden.

1874 Cooper School is built at a cost of $30,973. The Parochial school was distinguished by the reading and preparation of the dedication poem by Walt Whitman.

1875 The second City Hall building is completed.

1875 Cooper Hospital is chartered. It is founded by the Cooper family, when sisters Sarah and Elizabeth Cooper donate the ground where the hospital stands and $200,000, but does not open until 1887 to receive patients.

1876 Mathis Shipyard, Cooper’s Point is founded. The yard built auxiliary ships and minesweepers for the military during WWII.

1876 The first town clock in the tower of the City Hall rang out the hours for the first time in May.

1878 The Camden Opera house opens.???what was first show?

1879 Camden County Courier moves to Camden from Haddonfield in July.

1879 First telephone in Camden is installed at Ringle’s Drug store at Second and Market.

1879 West Jersey Paper Company, the largest factory of its kind opens. It was located at Front & Elm Streets.

1881 Richter Electric Light Company is startes. The company, which incorporated in 1887, held a railroad patent and produced dynamos for use in plating and with electric railways.

1881. Johnson & Holt’s Foundry at the bottom of Elm Street is established by Nelson W. Johnson and Benjamin Holt.

1881 J. B. Van Sciver & Company opens their furniture business on Federal Street.

1882 Camden Courier, at one time the most largely circulated paper published in West Jersey, begins is established.

1883 Camden National Bank, at 2nd & Kaighn Avenue is incorporated as a National bank.

1883 Walt Whitman House purchases the house at 330 Mickle Street for $1,750.

1885 Harleigh Cemetery, gravesite of Walt Whitman, opens as a garden cemetery.

1885 Richard M. Hollingshead, opens a plant at 9th and Market Streets that manufactured waxes and automotive oils and did government work during World War II.

1890 Sophia Presley becomes the first woman member of the Camden County Medical Society.

1892 The Temple Theater, Camden’s first real theater, opens on Market Street. The first production is “Tar and Feathers,” with Fred Frear and Annie Myers.

1894 Peter McGuire, Camden union leader’s dream realized when Labor Day is legalized by Congress.

1896 The original Camden Armory is constructed at Mickle Street. In later years, it was used as the Convention Hall.

1899 Camden County Historical Society is founded in 1899. The Society moved to its current location in 1924. It contains records, maps and images dating to the City’s first settlers.

1899 New York Shipbuilding Corporation is founded by Henry Morse. The yard laid the keel of their first ship in 1900. During WWII, the company employed over 35,000 men and women.

1901 Victor Talking Machine Company is incorporated in 1901 by Eldridge R. Johnson. Johnson first opened his machine shop in 1894. The company was sold to RCA in 1929.

1902 Parkside Tract houses begin construction.

1905 Camden Free Public Library Building is opened to the public in July. The library was donated by Andrew Carnegie.

1906 The Camden YWCA is organized

1906 Federals Street Bridge is erected. It is one of six remaining bridges of this type remaining in the State.

1907 City Council adopts the coat of arms for the city proposed by the Camden Historical Society.

1907 Herbert Megowan opens the first theater showing movies at Broadway and Chestnut, over Goldstein’s men’s store. Admission was five cents.

1908 Russ Columbo is born in Camden . Popular in the 1930’s, Columbo was featured in eleven films and was also a successful recording artist.

1909 The Camden Police add the first two motorcycles to their equipment in order to better control speeders.

1909 The city’s Playgrounds’ Association opens five new playgrounds in Camden.

1909 The new Park Boulevard is formally opened to the public.

1910 Jack Eldridge of Camden walks from Boston to San Francisco for a prize of $2,000.

1911 Cooper Creek is renamed Cooper River by act of Legislature.

1912 President Taft visits Camden to address a meeting in the Armory on Haddon Ave. This was the first time a President of the US spoke at a public gathering in Camden.

1912 Former President Theodore Roosevelt delivers an address at the Armory building to a large audience.

1912 A tornado hits Camden, tearing roofs off buildings and uprooting trees. Another one hits in 1919.

1915 Walt Whitman International Poetry Center, funded by Eldridge Johnson, the Center's mosaic frieze, “America Receiving the Gifts of the Nations,” was executed by Nicola D'Ascenzo and is comprised of over 100,000 pieces of colored glass.

1916 The Camden Fire Company becomes completely motorized.

1917 The stained glass window in the RCA tower “His Master’s Voice” is illuminated for the first time.

1918 An Influenza epidemic of great severity visited Camden and all New Jersey in October. The Fourth Liberty Loan campaign was handicapped by the illness of many of the workers. An emergency hospital opened in the Battery B Armory, remaining open one month. The schools and all public places were closed during the epidemic.

1918 The Camden High School cornerstone is laid. The building is dedicated in April 1918.

1918 City Council passes the ordinance bonding the city for $650,000 to make improvements to Yorkship Village.

1920 Ann Salsburg becomes the first woman to register to vote in Camden.

1921 South Camden Trust Co. opens for business. Judge Ralph W. E. Donges was the first president.

1921 Bellevue Hospital opens as private hospital by Drs. J. Lynn Mahaffey and E. R. Schall.

1921 The Salvation Army building on 5th below Market is dedicated.

1922 Women are first appointed to positions on the city and county Election Boards.

1923. Camden adopts the Commission form of government by a vote of 13,133 to 11, 273.

1924. Reading Terminal and Ferry Building, erected at the cost of $3,000,000, opens to the public.

1925 The new Convention Hall at the Camden Civic Centre is dedicated with a banquet.

1925 Walt Whitman Hotel, “the first modern, fire-proof hotel” opens to receive guests.

1926 Benjamin Franklin Bridge: Originally known as the Delaware River Bridge, is completed. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.

1926 The Post-Telegram is purchased by Courier Company.

1926 The new municipal radio station, WCAM, is dedicated.

1926 The Peter Pan Statue, Johnson Memorial Library is unveiled. A gift of Eldridge Johnson, the statue is a replica of a similar piece in Kensington Gardens, London and was a creation of Sir George Frampton,

1926 South Jersey Law School is established in March.

1926 The Stanley Theater, at a cost of one million dollars opens in February. This prestigious theater stood at the Corner of Broadway and Market Street.

1926 Woolworth’s opens its Camden store on Westfield Avenue, in East Camden.

1926. Board of Freeholders votes unanimously for the establishment of a vocational school.

1927 Forest Hill Park is renamed Farnham Park in appreciation of the services of 30-year City Engineer Levi E. Farnham.

1927 Mayor Price appoints a Committee to arrange for the observance of the 100th Anniversary of the City of Camden.

1927 The two-year undergraduate College of South Jersey opens in September.

1927. Sears, Roebuck & Company open its retail store at the Civic Center on 30 July 1927.

1928 Physician Ulysses S. Wiggins opens his private practice in Camden. He was born in Americus, Ga., and received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. Wiggins led the local NAACP from the early 1940s until his death in 1966.

1928 Ann Schmerling-Salsberg passes the bar, becoming the first woman lawyer in Camden .

1934 Weber’s Hof Brau is built at the Airport. The club hosts the popular “dance marathon” MC’d by Red Skelton early in his career and featured many stars including Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.

1931 The Central Airport opens in 1929. It was describes as the “world’s busiest” by the Philadelphia press in 1931.

1931 The new Camden County Court House and City Hall opens.

1933 First drive-in movie theater is opened by Richard Hollingshead in June.

1935 Ground is broken in Westfield Acres to provide housing for low income families.

1940 Franklin Roosevelt visits Camden for the first time during his presidency. He returns in 1944.

1946 The Ayer family deeds their flagstone mansion to Rutgers. F. Wayland Ayer was a successful advertising mogul, whose family lived in the Second Empire stule mansion for over half a century. It now serves as the Administration building.

1947 Theodore L. Primas becomes a firefighter. He rises through the ranks to become the first black chiefs in the Camden Fire Department.

1947 Lady of Lourdes Hospital begins construction.????

1950 The South Jersey Law School and the College of South Jersey merge to form Rutgers Camden.

1951 Jersey Joe Walcott (born Arnold Cream) wins the heavyweight championship. He was one of the original inductees into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

1953 The South Jersey Medical Research Foundation is chartered. The name was later changed to the Coriell Institute for Medical research, honoring Lewis L. Coriell, well known for his contributions to the production of the the polio vaccine and cell culture techniques.

1953 The first Hispanic

1957 The first Parada San Juan Bautista, a parade celebrating St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Puerto Rico , is held.

1967 Cindy Birdsong joins the Supremes with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson.

1967 Leon Huff, with Kenny Gamble, writes their first platinum record, “Expressway to Your Heart.” Huff was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995.

1967 Charles “Poppy” Sharp founds the Black Peoples Unity Movement.

1973 Jerothis Riggs becomes the first black woman to hold the post of President of the Camden Board of Education.

1989 Cooper-Grant Historic District, made up of more than 90 buildings dating from 1850 to 1950 is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1989 Nick Virgilio, internationally known poet dies. He is buried in Harleigh Cemetery.

1992 New Jersey State Aquarium opens, quickly established itself as among the five most visited attractions in the Philadelphia/South Jersey region.

1995 The Tweeter Center opens, one of the first year round amphitheaters of its kind.

2000 Gwendolyn Faison is appointed mayor of Camden, the first woman to hold the position. She was elected to a full term in May 2001.

2001 Campbell’s Field, home of the Camden Riversharks baseball team opens.

2001 Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial opens to the public.

2002 Dranoff Properties begins rehab of the Nipper Building in 2002, creating 341 luxury loft apartments.

Thanks to John Seitter, Director of Product Development at South Jersery Tourism Corporation, for sharing this list.