Walt Whitman Hotel, Camden, New Jersey

The Walt Whitman Hotel was a project championed by the Greater Camden Movement, a group of business and civic leaders who had begun to come together shortly before and during World War I. They had been especially effective in raising funds county-wide to support America’s war effort. After the war, the Greater Camden Movement’s grand plan to stimulate economic recovery and optimism was the construction of a bridge between Camden and Philadelphia, and a community hotel on the Camden side of the bridge, along with the building of a road network leading away from the bridge south-east through Camden County towards the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1920 Eldridge Johnson, the President of the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, pledged $100,000 towards the construction of the proposed hotel in order to house the newly formed Chamber of Commerce. In 1923 the Camden Chamber of Commerce, led by LeRoy A. Goodwin, appointed J. David Stern, the owner of the Camden Courier, chairman of the Hotel Committee. In 1924 the Community Hotel Corporation was incorporated.

In six days, $1,250,000 was raised by a committee of 370 Camden businessmen, led by James J. Scott, partner in the Strandwitz & Scott sheet metal works, in February of 1924. Scott would become treasurer of the new Community Hotel Corporation, and would procure many of the hotel’s furnishings. Other members of the fundraising and building committees included Scott’s partner William Strandwitz, W. Leonard Hurley (Hurley’s Department Store), George A. Munger (Munger & Long Department Store), lumber merchant Volney G. Bennett, Frank Hineline (Camden Lime Company), heating manufacturer Warren Webster, and insurance and real estate agents David Baird Jr., Leon Todd, Ralph D. Baker, and Charles W. Austermuhl. Congressman Charles A. Wolverton played a role as well.

The name Walt Whitman was chosen to instill civic pride and project a local identity. Every ethnic group in Camden participated, raising money within their communities. The Polish-Americans were led by attorney and realtor Peter S. Gulcz, Meyer Wessell led the Jewish campaign, coat manufacturer Antonio DiPaolo the Italians, and Dr. Clement T. Branch mobilized the Black community. The Walt Whitman Hotel opened for business in 1926.

James J. Scott — Camden Courier, 1925.

Prior to the building of the Walt Whitman Hotel and the Delaware River Bridge, Broadway ended at Cooper Street, and Cooper Street was where many of the richest and most prominent families in Camden lived. After securing the city government’s commitment to extend Broadway to the proposed Bridge Plaza, the Community Hotel Corporation purchased the mansions of J. Lynn Truscott, Alice B. Hanford, and the Hussong family, and razed them in order to make room for the hotel.

The destruction of these homes marked the beginning of the end for Camden’s most historic neighborhood. In combination with the destruction of the Linden Terrace neighborhood by the construction of the Delaware River Bridge, many of Camden’s business and professional families began leaving the city, a process that within a few decades left the city impoverished of capital both monetary and human. While the Greater Camden Movement’s “Gateway to South Jersey” may have done much to develop Camden County, in retrospect it marked the beginning of the end of the City of Camden’s prosperity and viability.

Camden Courier-Post, January 7, 1928. Hotel Walt Whitman — Congregation Beth El, Congregation Ahev Zedek, Rabbi Nachman Arnoff, Rabbi Archie Davidson, Lewis Liberman, Meyer Sakin, Dr. David Cooper, Dr. Leopold Z. Goldstein, Herman Odlen, Fred Siris, Hyman James, Nathan Friedenberg — B’nai B’rith, Camden’s Jewish Community.

State and National officials of the Federation of Business and Professional Women will address the Camden branch at its January meeting in the Hotel Walt Whitman on Thursday evening. Miss Virginia Montgomery, National Federation program chairman, and Miss Mary L. Johnston, New Jersey federation president, are slated to make the principal addresses following dinner. Dr. Lettie Ward, president of the Camden branch, will preside.

An industrial campaign for the purpose of inducing new business industries to locate in Camden will be part of the program of the Chamber of Commerce for this year, Loyal D. Odhner, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, told members of the Rotary Club at a luncheon today in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Odhner’s outline of the chamber’s program, which included an industrial survey for the purpose of determining possibilities for new manufacturers and improving present business facilities, was approved by Francis B. Wallen, new president of the Chamber of Commerce, who attended the luncheon.

“During these last five years, Camden has had little or no industrial growth. Manufacturers have either chosen other localities in preference to us or else they have not even thought of us. I prefer to believe the latter is the case. Our first step, then, is to make our city more appealing to the industrial prospect. This can be accomplished by an industrial campaign with the cooperation of all business forces.

“I am confident that before this year ends you will see the resources of this community mobilized into one of the greatest campaigns for new industries that has ever been waged in America.”

Odhner urged members of the Rotary Club to get behind a movement to organize a force to meet the financial problems that will accompany the advent of new industries. He said that as a preliminary step in the campaign it is the intention of President Wallen to ask all of Camden’s neighboring towns to join with her in this movement. “Sometime in March,” he said, “it is hoped a meeting of all leaders of surrounding communities will be held for the purpose of forming a Greater Camden Chamber of Commerce.”

William S. Darnell became president of the Camden Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at the annual meeting and election of officers of the organization yesterday. Other officers are Millwood Truscott, first vice president; Rev. Roland Wringwalt, second vice president; Millwood Truscott, treasurer; Mrs. William P. Walsh, secretary; William P. Walsh and Frank T. Lloyd Jr., solicitor; Dr. A. S. Ross, Dr. Alexander Ellis, Charles Hutchinson and Ernest La Rossa, physicians for the society.

A contract was awarded by the society for the erection of a playroom for the children of the Sheltering Arms Home on River Avenue. More than half of the sum needed for the construction of the addition has been collected. A report by Mrs. Walsh revealed that during the past month 43 cases were investigated and that 66 children were involved. Members and nurses of the society made a total of 21 visits during the period.

All officers of the Camden County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were re-elected yesterday afternoon at a meeting at the Hotel Walt Whitman. William S. Darnell again was named president. Other officers re-elected were Vice-presidents, Millwood Truscott and Rev. Rolland Ringwalt; treasurer, Millwood Truscott; secretary, Mrs. William P. Walsh. Solicitors appointed are William P. Walsh and Frank T. Lloyd Jr. Physicians named are Dr. Alexander S. Rosa, Dr. Alexander Ellis, Dr. Charles Hutchinson and Dr. E. DeRossi.

Fumigation as a method of preventing disease was discounted by Dr. Arthur L. Stone, city health director, in a talk yesterday before the Y’s Men’s Club at the Hotel Walt Whitman. “It gives a false sense of security,” he declared. “It kills only the germs upon the surface. As a matter of fact diseases are carried by individuals, and spread by contact of persons.

“Modern public health does not depend upon safeguard of the environment, but upon safeguard of the individual. It does little good to choose methods for fumigation, when the disease may be spread by some individual who carries the bacteria.”

Dr. Stone took as his subject “Secrets of Health.” He pointed to vaccination as the only certain way to immunize persons against disease. Smallpox and typhoid fever now are controlled by antitoxins, and diphtheria is well on the way to control. He said that a serum for scarlet fever soon may be discovered. As a result of his vaccination activities here Dr. Stone predicted that the city will soon have an “army of immune children.” More than 10,000 children have been vaccinated against diphtheria, and there will be more as soon as parents learn to lose their fear of the treatment, he said.

An exciting contest is expected in the annual election of officers of the Broadway Business Men’s Association. The elections, preceded by a banquet, will be held Wednesday evening, January 25, at Hotel Walt Whitman. Three merchants are candidates for the presidency, which will be vacated by Harry Pelouze. There are J. V. Moran, Walter Friant and Morris Futernick. Another battle is looked for in the naming of a vice-president — M. Fuhrman and J. W. Holmes are the two candidates. Edwin C. Norcross, present treasurer, will be unopposed for re-election. Albert S. Dudley will be unopposed when he succeeds David Tattersdill as secretary.

Representatives from every business in every section of the city have been invited to attend the affair. The principal speaker will be former Judge John B. Kates, of the Broadway Merchants Trust Company. An address on interstate traffic and its relations to the transportation problems of Camden business will be delivered by J. J. Ruster, head of the transportation department of the Camden Chamber of Commerce. Francis B. Wallen and Loyal D. Odhner, president and secretary respectively of the Chamber of Commerce, will also be guests of the merchants.

The third annual banquet and election of officers of the Broadway Business Men’s Association will be held tomorrow evening in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Three candidates seek the presidency of the organization: Morris Futernick and Walter Friant, merchants, and James V. Moran, general manager of the Hurley Store. Rev. Camille Estornelle, rector of St. Johns Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation, while Harry Pelouze, president of the association, will be toastmaster. John B. Kates, president of the Broadway Merchants Trust Company, will be the principal speaker.

The Camden Level Club will hold its first annual charity ball tomorrow night at the Hotel Walt Whitman. Proceeds will be used for charitable work. Norman I. Wessel is chairman of the committee in charge. Milton Manheimer heads the ticket committee. Others aiding the arrangements are Fred Siris, secretary of the club, Joseph H. Rickler, treasurer, and Nathan S. Rubin, Dr. Isadore S. Siris, Nathan Friedenberg and Dr. Reuben L. Cutler.

Tables will be placed for bridge, five-hundred and pinochle at the card party which Corporal Raymond C. Thoirs Post of the American Legion will give in the ballroom of the Hotel Walt Whitman on Friday evening. Playing will begin at half after eight o’clock. Walter Garland, chairman of the card party committee, has announced. The card party is one of the post’s main events of the year. The auxiliary is co-operating and it is expected that several hundred persons will attend. Members of the committee in charge of the affair are Paul Engle, Russell Keen, George Seybold, LeGrande Roberts, Herbert Blizzard, Whitcomb Wright, Albert Smith, William Miller, Raymond Van Horn, Meyers Baker and Albert Wehner.

Camden county educators in providing special training for crippled children leads the state in the movement to rehabilitate youths suffering from physical defects. That opinion was expressed by Joseph G. Buch, of Trenton, chairman of the New Jersey State Crippled Children’s Commission, speaking before the Camden Kiwanis Club at Hotel Walt Whitman yesterday.

“Through the efforts of the state organization and the Elks Crippled Kiddies Committee,” Buch said, “every crippled child in New Jersey is now offered the chance for medical attention, training and vocational guidance. More than 13,000 children between the ages of one and 18 years are registered with the state organization at Trenton, and 364 of those able to attend some special training class are being rehabilitated.”

Buch urged the service clubs to aid the organization in placing youths in positions in the working world. A delegation of Kiwanians from Brooklyn attended the meeting, headed by the club president, John Kay. The visitors were welcomed by former Judge John B. Kates. Dr. Martin H. Collier, president of the Camden club, made a report on the annual state convention of Kiwanis held at the hotel last week.

Paul Raymond, French vice consul, of Philadelphia, will be the principal speaker today at a joint service club luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Joint hosts at the meeting will be the Lions Club and the Camden County Chamber of Commerce. Francis B. Wallen, president of the Lions Club, and Watson C. Shallcross, president of the Chamber of Commerce, will preside jointly at the luncheon. William A. Eppright, chairman of arrangements. Raymond will speak on French-American relations.

More than 50 members of the Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club will be the guests of Crew Levick Co. in an inspection trip up the Delaware River next Thursday when the guests will be entertained at lunch on Petty Island. Announcement of the plans for the trip were made by William Eppright at a joint meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and Lions at Hotel Walt Whitman today. The trip will be made aboard the tug Shankin, leaving the Camden Marine Terminal Pier at the foot of Beckett Street at noon.

David Baird Jr., Republican nominee for governor, will make his final appearance in the current election campaign Monday night, in his “own home town,” when he will address a monster rally at the Hebrew Republican League, at the Talmud Torah, 621 Kaighn Avenue. The Hebrew league reorganized formally at a luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Lewis Liberman, assistant city solicitor, was elected president; Sig Schoenagle, Samuel Shaner, Israel Weitzman, vice-presidents; L. Scott Cherchesky, secretary, and Samuel Label, treasurer.

Trustees of the league include Hyman Bloom, Mitchell E. Cohen, Benjamin Friedman, Jacob L. Furer, Isadore H. Hermann, Carl Kisselman, Edward Markowitz, Louis L. Markowitz, Harry Obus, Maurice L. Praissman, Samuel Richelson, Meyer L. Sakin, Julius Rosenberg, Jacob Rosenkrantz and Jack Weinberg.

In addition to former Senator Baird, speakers at the Jewish rally will include Mrs. Elizabeth C. Verga, Republican state committeewoman and vice chairman of the county committee; Congressman Charles A. Wolverton, Congressman Benjamin Golder, of Pennsylvania, and State Senator Samuel Salus, of Pennsylvania.

An Industrial Recovery Act Committee of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce was appointed yesterday. A. C. Held was named chairman of the committee and immediately called a meeting for tomorrow, at 12:15 in Hotel Walt Whitman. Other members of the committee include J. W. Burnison, Clinton L. Bardo, Harry A. Kelleher, Warren Webster, Jr., Harry A. Moran, Harry C. Stevenson, T. David Stern, B. H. Hudson, Charles Wagner, A. W. Stedman, Stanley Cramer, and Loyal D. Odhner. A study of the National Recovery Act passed by Congress for President Roosevelt is to be made by the committee to determine what action should be taken by Camden manufacturers and merchants toward price and wage recovery.

“Municipal Ownership of Light” will be the subject of an address by Frank Daugherty, Philadelphia engineer, at a meeting of the Camden Kiwanis Club at Hotel Walt Whitman today. Daugherty, a member of the Scofield Engineering Co., designers of the Jacksonville, Florida municipal lighting plant, will be the guest of City Commissioner Frank B. Hanna, with whom the commissioner visited the southern city several weeks ago on an inspection tour.

Officers for the coming year were installed at the last meeting of the season of the Junior Welfare Social Club held at the Hotel Walt Whitman. Officers installed were Miss Ida Berger, president; Miss Mildred Redius, vice president; Mrs. Fay Friedbaum, corresponding secretary; Miss Florence Feinstein, recording secretary, and Miss Ida Cabnet, treasurer. Miss Berger succeeded Miss Edythe Plotnick. Plans are being made for a dinner dance to be held on June 14 by a committee headed by Miss Mary Rosenkranz.

Plans for a campaign to raise funds to cover the budget of the Salvation Army Corps here were discussed yesterday at a meeting of members of the executive board at Hotel Walt Whitman. William D. Sayrs, chairman of the committee, presided and requested that a successor be appointed. The nominating committee selected Earl Lippincott, chairman; Mrs. Arthur Casselman and John J. Robinson, vice chairmen. Brigadier James A. Harvey, commanding the Philadelphia region of the Army, reviewed the work accomplished at the Camden headquarters under direction of Captain Charles W. Schafter.

The Camden County Chamber of Commerce has gone on record as unanimously favoring inclusion of seven amendments in President Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act. In two 180-word telegrams to Senators Hamilton F. Kean and W. Warren Barbour at Washington, the adoption of the amendments proposed by the National Association of Manufacturers was urged by A. C. Held, chairman of the Chamber’s manufacturers’ division.

Besides Chairman Held and Clinton L. Bardo, other Camden manufacturers attending the meeting at the Hotel Walt Whitman included W. S. Wheeler and James McGowan of Campbell Soup Co., E. S. Wood of Esterbrook Pen Co., Clarence Nicholson and C. H. Wilhelm of Haddon Press, William H. Chew Sr. of Sinnickson Chew & Co., Warren Webster Sr., T. L. Vanderslice of John R. Evans Co., Stanley Cramer of Radio Condenser Co., A. W. Stedman of Standard Tank & Seat Co., E. R. Schenck of RCA Victor Company and Francis B. Wallen, chairman of the Chamber’s executive committee.

A testimonial dinner will be tendered Mrs. Elizabeth C. Verga and City Commissioner Clay W. Reesman by the Republican County Committee on June 29. Carlton M. Harris, Twelfth Ward committeeman, has been chosen to direct arrangements for the event, to be held in the Walt Whitman Hotel. Commissioner Reesman, director of public works, recently was elected chairman of the county committee and Mrs. Verga, who is vice-chairman of the state committee, was named to the same position on the county board.

Walter G. Garlan, of Haddonfield, was elected commander of Thoirs Post, No. 47, American Legion, last night at a meeting held in the ballroom of the Hotel Walt Whitman. He was unopposed and succeeds LeGrand Roberts, mayor of Oaklyn. Fifty-nine members participated in the election. Robert C. Brown and Peter De Costa were elected vice commanders. Walter C. Charles won the race for post chaplain. Ira H. Condit successfully waged his campaign for the sergeant-at-arms post. Others elected were Ellis C. Kircher, finance officer; Frank B. Anderson, service officer; Earl W. Young, historian and Dr. A. Lincoln Sherk, hospitalization officer.

The auxiliary of Camden B’nai B’rith will give a minstrel and dance tonight at Hotel Walt Whitman. Mrs. Joseph Becker is chairman of the committee on arrangements. The cast for the minstrel is composed of the members of the committee in addition to Miss Isabelle Ostroff, Miss Edythe Plotnick, Mrs. Etta Rosen, Miss Ida Cabnet, Miss Ida Berger, Miss Freda Ruttenberg, Mrs. Hattie Michel, Miss Sarah Schatz and Mrs. Jack Bryen.

“The price of gasoline today is down as low as it ever will be for the consumer. If it goes any lower, there will be any number of bankruptcies among dealers and retailers.” That statement was made at the weekly meeting of the Camden Lions’ Club in Hotel Walt Whitman yesterday by E. M. Keely, superintendent of the Crew Levick Company refinery on Petty’s Island.

“Most of the oil companies finished in the red last year and so they were justified in raising the price of their products. The price of gasoline should never have been reduced, when you consider that the particular gas for which a motorist was paying 7 cents a gallon besides the tax, cost more than that to manufacture and market.”

Keely told of the expansion program of his concern on Petty’s Island and declared that the future growth of commerce along the Delaware River would be from Petty’s Island to Palmyra because of the dredging program of the government.

Members of civic bodies making up the Congress will leave at 6:30 p.m. from the Hotel Walt Whitman, Camden, for Trenton, where a giant mass meeting will be held at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Building. The Camden County Chamber of Commerce will send an impressive motorcade with police escorts all the way.

Industry in the future will work on a smaller net percentage of profit with an increased turnover as a means to recovery, Frank A. Kates Jr., stock broker representative, told members of the Kiwanis Club at Hotel Walt Whitman. “Seasonal demands for funds,” Kates said, “should induce business men to anticipate their future needs in a manner similar to successful banks.”

Camden Soroptimists will hold their June business meeting following luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman on Monday. Mrs. Mary A. Koch, president, will preside.

A reception and dance for 195 students of Camden Catholic High School will be held Friday night at the Walt Whitman Hotel. The event is the annual greeting of the school alumni association to the graduating class. The students will receive diplomas at the commencement exercises to be held Sunday at Convention Hall. The committee arranging the reception includes William P. O’Keefe, chairman; Thomas Madden, Mary McGinley, Dorothy Hope, James McDade and Edward Inglesby.

Reports of the delegates to the State Council of the Auxiliary to the International Order of B’nai Brith, held this past Sunday in Atlantic City, will be given at the monthly meeting of the Camden branch of the organization to be held this evening in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Mrs. Samuel Rosen, president of the Camden group, will preside.

Robert C. Perina, a public accountant and member of the board of education, was elected president of the Lions Club at the annual election yesterday in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Other officers elected were Harry G. Hagerty, first vice president, and Max Reihmann Jr., second vice president. William P. Partenheimer Jr. was re-elected secretary and A. D. Ambruster re-elected treasurer.

Eight retiring school principals were honored last night at a banquet in the junior ballroom of Hotel Walt Whitman by the Camden Principals’ Association. They are Miss Daisy Furber, Central School; Mrs. Margaret Thomson, Northeast; Miss Minerva Stackhouse, Davis; Miss Bessie Snyder, McKinley; Miss Clara S. Burrough, Camden High; Miss Helen Wescott, Mulford; Miss Loretta Ireland, Cooper; Miss Charlotte V. Dover, Washington.

Harry Showalter, president of the association, presided. Eighty guests represented the entire school system of 38 institutions. Showalter, Dr. Leon N. Neulen, superintendent of schools, and Dr. James E. Bryan, retired superintendent, joined in paying tribute to the retiring principals. The male teachers serenaded the women instructors and vice versa with song. At the closing the teachers joined hands at the suggestion of Dr. Bryan and sang “Auld Lang Syne.”

All Camden service clubs were urged yesterday by David Baird Jr. to enlist the aid of their fellow organizations in Philadelphia in removing obstacles to the Camden Bridge high speed line. Baird, addressing the Camden Kiwanis Club at its luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman, praised the Delaware River Joint Commission’s plan for a tie-up between the bridge line and a terminal at Haddon Avenue and Carman Street as superior to other proposals.

A card party to benefit the unemployed will be held by the Westmont conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the ball room of the Hotel Walt Whitman June 26. “During these distressing times, when many home buyers suddenly have unemployment forced on them, meeting of mortgage carrying charges has been the source of much worry and discouragement,” the society’s announcement says.

Railroads have passed the peak of usefulness and in their place has come the modern highway systems with motorized vehicles, declared Judson C. Welliver, of Philadelphia, former newspaperman and publicist, speaking at the weekly meeting of the Camden Rotary Club in Hotel Walt Whitman.

“The railway age is being succeeded by the highway age,” declared Welliver. “Will our country throttle and hamstring the new facility that everywhere else holds the key to the future? A hundred years ago the railroad was given its chance. Indeed it was enormously subsidized with money and with land grants in area equal to Great Britain and the German Empire combined. The highway has asked nothing of that sort. Today, its special taxes are $1,200,000,000 a year; railroad taxes are one-fourth of that.”

Former Ambassador Walter E. Edge will speak at the reception and dinner being given June 29 to Commissioner Clay W. Reesman and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Verga in honor of their election as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Camden County Republican Committee. In addition to Ambassador Edge, United States Senators Hamilton F. Kean and W. Warren Barbour have accepted invitations. Others on the speaking list are: Mrs. Edna B. Conklin, former U.S. Senator David Baird, Congressman Charles A. Wolverton, Registrar of Deeds Joshua C. Haines and Assemblywoman Isabella C. Reinert. The reception is being held at the Walt Whitman Hotel.

Samuel P. Orlando and Richard Bauer, delegate and alternate respectively of the Camden Optimist Club, left yesterday for Washington to attend the nineteenth annual International Optimist convention. They received their final instructions at Wednesday’s weekly luncheon of the local club at the Hotel Walt Whitman.

Earl R. Lippincott, real estate broker, has been named chairman of the advisory board of the Camden unit of the Salvation Army, succeeding William D. Sayrs. Elections of officers were held yesterday following a luncheon meeting at Hotel Walt Whitman. Vice chairmen include John J. Robinson and Mrs. Arthur J. Casselman. Other officers include Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, treasurer, and Miss Elizabeth Magill, secretary.

Political trading at the session of the Legislature by persons fired with personal ambitions was scored yesterday in a speech by State Senator Albert S. Woodruff before the Camden Rotary Club in the Hotel Walt Whitman. “It is true,” he said, “that there was a great deal of trading during the past session among persons ambitious and desirous of obtaining their own ends. This was very disheartening to those who go to the Legislature to work. However, much was accomplished, more than in any year in my experience.”

The senator recounted the accomplishments of the lawmakers, telling of legislation suspending mandatory salaries and other expenditures for the municipalities; emergency acts before and during the bank holiday crisis, and the plan to aid financially stricken school districts through sale of $12,000,000 in Camden Bridge bonds. Former U. S. Senator David Baird Jr. and Vice Chancellor Francis B. Davis attended the luncheon. William T. Read, former state senator and president of the club, presided.

A testimonial dinner will be given tonight by the Camden County Republican Committee in honor of party leaders with former Governor Edward C. Stokes as principal speaker. Those to be honored are Mrs. Elizabeth C. Verga, Commissioner Clay W. Reesman, Assemblywoman Isabella C. Reinert and Joshua C. Haines. Other speakers will include Congressman Charles A. Wolverton, former U. S. Senator David Baird Jr., U. S. Senators Hamilton F. Kean and W. Warren Barbour, and E. Bertram Mott, state chairman. Carlton M. Harris said reservations have been made at the Hotel Walt Whitman for 500 guests.

Harry B. Gurley, of Paterson, state president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, attended a meeting of the executive committee of Local No. 30 in the Hotel Walt Whitman.

A new boom in real estate values within the next several months was forecast by Philip Zinman, Camden real estate man who spoke at the weekly meeting of the Camden Lions Club in Hotel Walt Whitman. “President Roosevelt’s Inflation program is responsible for the slow but sure comeback of real estate. Within the last six to eight weeks business of rentals of property has picked up tremendously.”

Although the Camden Soroptimist Club will hold no regular meeting until September, members will gather each Monday for luncheon in the club rooms of the Hotel Walt Whitman. These informal get-togethers were begun last Summer and proved such a success that they are being repeated this season. Mrs. Mary A. Koch is the president.

The N.R.A. recovery drive in the Camden area forged ahead on three fronts. Clinton L. Bardo, president of the New York Shipbuilding Company, was appointed chairman of the N.R.A. campaign committee for Camden city and county. Thirty Camden merchants met at Hotel Walt Whitman to organize a retail division of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce with the hope that a united front will better enable retailers to protest non-cooperation of N.R.A. merchants. — Camden Courier-Post, August 8, 1933.

Six youths of Camden city and county, graduates of various institutions of higher learning who have embarked upon professional careers within the past ten months, will be honored tonight at a dinner-dance tendered them by the Circolo Italiano of Camden County. The event is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. in Hotel Walt Whitman.

The honored guests are Dr. Anthony Di Ielsi, Dr. John Carman Canal, Dr. John D. Del Duca, Philip M. Mealo, Angelo D. Malandra, and Dr. P. J. Chinappi. Common Pleas Judge Eugene V. Alessandroni, of Philadelphia, will be one of the principal speakers. Others include State Senator Albert S. Woodruff, Mayor Roy R. Stewart of Camden and Dr. A. A. de Porreca. Rocco Palese, assistant prosecutor of Camden County and president of the Circolo Italiano, will preside as toastmaster.

Miss Mabel Clay, regent, and Mrs. J. Warren Perkins, vice regent, of the New Jersey Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, have accepted the invitation of Nassau Chapter to attend its thirty-ninth anniversary luncheon at the Hotel Walt Whitman on Tuesday, November 19. — Camden Courier-Post, October 29, 1935.

Camden county’s drive for a $15,000 fund for Boy Scouts netted $10,481 with several districts unrecorded. Such was the report of leaders of the campaign at a meeting last night at Hotel Walt Whitman under leadership of J. W. Burnison, president of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce. — Camden Courier-Post, October 19, 1935.

Triple Counties Post, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, will meet tomorrow night at Hotel Walt Whitman for the installation of officers. Abraham Kraditor, of New York, national commander-in-chief, is expected to be the installing officer. Lewis Liberman was elected commander of the post, organized October 20, with Isadore S. Worth, vice commander; Harry Bush, adjutant, and Morris Segal, quartermaster. — Camden Courier-Post, October 29, 1935.

The Camden Lions Club was entertained by members of the Musical Club of the College of South Jersey at the service organization’s weekly luncheon in Hotel Walt Whitman yesterday, under the direction of Dante Saputelli, violinist. — Camden Courier-Post, February 5, 1936.

The sixth annual military reception and ball under the auspices of the Reserve Officers’ Association will be held at the Hotel Walt Whitman next Friday, February 14. Honor guests will include Congressman and Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, Mayor and Mrs. Frederick von Nieda, Rear Admiral S. Robison, U.S.N. (retired), and Brigadier General Cyrus S. Radford, U.S.M.C. (retired). — Camden Courier-Post, February 8, 1936.

With an expected attendance of 600 persons, the fourteenth annual promenade and reception of American Council of the Knights of Columbus will be held tonight at the Hotel Walt Whitman. George J. Reed is grand knight of the council. — Camden Courier-Post, February 20, 1936.

City Commissioner Mary W. Kobus will deliver the principal address today at the Camden County Real Estate Board luncheon in Hotel Walt Whitman. Her topic will be “Vandalism and the Police Department.” — Camden Courier-Post, February 20, 1936.

Racial and class barriers in Jerusalem are being broken down through efforts of the Y.M.C.A., members of the Camden Y’s Men Club were told yesterday by Fred Auburn, physical director of the Palestine Y.M.C.A., at the local luncheon at Hotel Walt Whitman. — Camden Courier-Post, February 21, 1936.

A resolution to repave and relight Broadway from Penn Street to Liberty Street was passed last night by the newly formed Broadway Business Men’s Association at its first meeting in Hotel Walt Whitman. Morris N. Futernick was elected president. — Camden Courier-Post, February 26, 1936.

The regular weekly luncheon of the American Legion Luncheon Club was held at the Hotel Walt Whitman last Monday with Townsend H. Boyer, chairman, presiding. — Camden Courier-Post, February 28, 1936.

Rabbi Israel Goldstein, of New York, president of the Jewish National Fund of America, will speak tonight at a mass meeting at the Hotel Walt Whitman, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Jewish National Fund. Leon H. Rose, Camden attorney, who is president of the Jewish National Fund Council of Southern New Jersey, will be toastmaster. Rabbis N. H. J. Riff and Philip L. Lipis will speak.

Those at the dinner will include: David Breslau, Ben Zion Steinberg, Isaac Singer, Mrs. Samuel Kaplan, Mrs. Abraham Kaplan, Samuel Varbalow, Meyer Adelman, E. George Aaron, Jacob Leventon, Jesse Satenstein, Lewis Liberman, A. J. Rosenfeld, Judge Joseph Varbalow, Elias Klein, Mark Marritz, Albert B. Melnik, Dr. Samuel H. Blank, Barney B. Brown, Jacob Naden, Samuel Ginns, Ernest Dubin, Ellis Goodman, Leon Naden, Louis Rovner, Joseph Ruttenberg, Morris Liebman, Albert Caplan, Lester Abrahamer, I. J. Milask, Isadore H. Hermann, Milton C. Nurock, Harry Trautenberg, Manuel Winigrad, Hanan Yarden, Morris Drob and Mrs. Dora E. Rose.

Warren Webster Jr. was elected president of the executive board of Camden County Council, Boy Scouts of America, at its annual dinner meeting last night. He succeeds J. William Markeim. The meeting was in the junior ballroom of the Hotel Walt Whitman, with 150 members attending. The principal speaker was E. Urner Goodman, national director of program, whose subject was “Building a Stronger Generation.”

Others elected were A. W. Stedman, honorary president; Joshua C. Haines, honorary commissioner; Dr. E. W. Roberts, first vice president; Albert M. Bean, second vice president; Walter G. Garlan, third vice president; Elmer J. Williams, treasurer; Col. G. Barrett Glover, commissioner. As chairman of the training committee, Bean presented certificates to 30 men who had completed courses in Scout leadership.

Camden Council, Knights of Columbus, will hold a “George Washington Birthday Ball” February 22, at the Hotel Walt Whitman. Grand Knight J. Frank Crawford says he can find no trace of a civic affair of this nature ever having been given in Camden to pay honor to the first President. Both the main and junior ballrooms of the hotel have been engaged for the dance while numerous rooms in the hostelry have been reserved for dinner parties to precede the ball. Mrs. Jere Crean heads the women’s committee. — Camden Courier-Post, February 2, 1938.

Courtlandt K. Parker, deputy inspector of motor vehicles, will speak at the meeting of the Camden Lions Club in the Hotel Walt Whitman today. — Camden Courier-Post, February 2, 1938.

A meeting of the Camden County Chapter, Zonta International, will be held in the Hotel Walt Whitman tonight. Mrs. A. Haines Lippincott, temporary chairman of the newly organized group, will preside. — Camden Courier-Post, February 3, 1938.

“We must put an immediate curtailment on this lavish spending down in Washington, which leads only to unbalanced budgets.” So declared Congressman Dewey Short, Republican, of Missouri, principal speaker last night at the 22nd annual banquet of the Camden County Real Estate Board, with more than 400 attending at the Hotel Walt Whitman.

“We face the fact that 11,000,000 persons are out of work in the United States but, on the other hand, we see that the government is making special awards to indolents. The most regrettable thing is that we have bred a race of softies, people who don’t come down there and stand up for their rights.”

Among the guests were Joseph B. Sentzman, president of the West Philadelphia Realty Board; former Judge Frank F. Neutze, Judge Clifford A. Baldwin, County Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando, State Senator Albert E. Burling, William H. Eppright, Ellis Kircher and Harry A. Louderback.

A formal Valentine Hop has been planned for tonight by Thoirs Post Assembly. The dance is the fourth of the series of five given by the assembly each winter and will be held in the Hotel Walt Whitman ballroom. George D. Rothermel is chairman of the committee on arrangements. Barney Berle’s orchestra provides music. — Camden Courier-Post, February 5, 1938.

Junior club women from throughout the first district are joining forces this afternoon to stage a fashion show and card party in the Hotel Walt Whitman in the interest of the Braille Fund for the blind. Miss Jeanne Barclay Harte, of Collingswood, has served as general chairman. — Camden Courier-Post, February 5, 1938.

One of the largest attended meetings of the Master Plumbers of Camden County was held last week at Hotel Walt Whitman. The license systems in use throughout the county were an important subject of discussion. A survey disclosed approximately 26 boroughs and townships required the plumber to hold and pay for a license in each of the separate municipalities — as many as from 10 to 15 licenses. Clarence Lind, president, was authorized to appoint a zoning committee to draft a plan for a reciprocal arrangement. — Camden Courier-Post, February 7, 1938.

Charles Siegel, Supreme Tall Cedar of the United States, and his official Camden Forest No. 5 staff will be honored at a dinner and at the second annual charity ball of the Tall Cedars of Lebanon at the Walt Whitman Hotel Saturday night. Among the guests will be City Commissioner Frederick von Nieda and Mrs. von Nieda; City Commissioner Frank J. Hartmann and Mrs. Hartmann; Surrogate F. B. Hanna and Mrs. Hanna. Music will be furnished by the Famous Sonny James Orchestra. — Camden Courier-Post, February 9, 1938.

Adolph Hitler and his “brown barbarians” were accused of aiming to make war the “be-all and end-all of human evolution” in an address by Walter Schoenstedt, native-born German, world traveler and author, before the Camden Rotary Club in Hotel Walt Whitman. Introduced by Leon H. Rose, Camden lawyer, Schoenstedt told the club members he would not speak against Germany, but would “point out the evils of a dictatorship under Hitler, who is not Germany.”

“The aim of the great German philosophers,” said Schoenstedt, “was the happiness of humanity. Today the foremost aim of the dictator is to make war the be-all and end-all of human evolution. Goethe and Heine have vanished from German school readers and the words of the new exponents of German culture have taken their place.

“The fight of the German rulers against thought and reason, against literature and science is not an accident. This hatred which we find in every speech concerning literature is expressed in the work of one of the leaders in the official German world of letters: ‘When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver.’ In Germany they tell the young people there is no life without war. When young people gather for their graduations, they see huge posters on the walls bearing the slogan that is the spirit of German education today: ‘We are born to die for Germany.’”

Schoolchildren, members of service clubs, and civic leaders joined the Camden County Real Estate Board yesterday in paying tribute to the memory of Abraham Lincoln at a luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman. The principal speaker was Hamilton R. Disston, who recited Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and concluded with a dramatic picture of the President’s assassination in Ford’s Theatre. Eighty-five persons were present. — Camden Courier-Post, February 11, 1938.

Joseph E. Mears, manager of the Hotel Walt Whitman, flew to Cleveland yesterday to attend a meeting of the executives of the American Hotels Corp., with which the Camden hostelry is affiliated. Before he left, Mears said the Walt Whitman had known one of the really prosperous years in its history in 1937. “Persons tell me there is a recession in business, but you would never know it by the business in this hotel. We have had a swell year and I’m reporting this fact to our hotel chain.” — Camden Courier-Post, February 11, 1938.

Plans for a snappy floor show as an additional feature of the second annual charity ball of the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, Camden Forest No. 5, were announced yesterday. Sonny James with the recording and broadcasting orchestra that bears his name, will supply the music — interspersing swing for the youngsters with waltzes for the old-timers. The ball is scheduled for Saturday night at Hotel Walt Whitman.

The general committee consists of: Joseph C. Brown, Grand Tall Cedar; William E. Strouse, chairman; Daniel W. Forsyth, secretary and treasurer; Walter W. Giffins, Grand Conductor; reception, Paul C. Ireton, George Murray, Walter Morris, William Roher, Harry Holt, Vic Marx, Charles Ackley, Howard Dahl, Francis Gaskill, Frederick von Nieda and Frank Hartmann.

Five hundred persons attended the second annual ball of Camden Forest, No. 5, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, Saturday night in Hotel Walt Whitman. Featured was a vaudeville floor show. Music was furnished by Sonny James and a 16-piece orchestra. — Camden Courier-Post, February 14, 1938.

One of the principal pre-Lenten events in this city will be the Knights of Columbus Ball to be held in the Hotel Walt Whitman on Tuesday evening, February 22. Since the ball falls on Washington’s birthday the program has been centered around the observance of the national holiday. John A. Reynolds is general chairman of the ball committee. Mrs. Jere Crean heads the women’s committee. — Camden Courier-Post, February 14, 1938.

Leaders of industry, bankers and merchants will attend the weekly meeting today of the Camden County Real Estate Board when Joseph A. Wilson, chief of the income tax division of the Internal Revenue Department, Philadelphia area, will be the principal speaker at the meeting to be held in Hotel Walt Whitman at noon. His topic will be “Your Income Tax Return.” — Camden Courier-Post, February 15, 1938.

George B. Thorn, superintendent of the Vineland State School, will speak at the noon meeting of the Camden Rotary Club in the Hotel Walt Whitman today. His subject will be, “Problems in Connection with the Feeble Minded.” Many members of Rotary are planning to attend the Rotary convention in San Francisco June 19 to June 24. — Camden Courier-Post, February 17, 1938.

A municipal light plant properly operated can be made to yield big savings and profits to taxpayers, it was declared by George B. Thorn, superintendent of the Vineland State School. Thorn told members of the Camden Rotary Club in Hotel Walt Whitman the cost of furnishing fuel, light and power for the institution’s population of 1,492 was $35,000 last year as compared with $56,000 in 1922. The institution has its own light and power plant. — Camden Courier-Post, February 17, 1938.

The annual ball of Ahepa, Camden Chapter No. 69, will be held February 23, in Hotel Walt Whitman. Thomas Manos is committee chairman. Proceeds will be contributed to the association’s sanatorium in New Mexico and for the education of Greek boys and young men. Officers of the Camden chapter are: Thomas Shissias, president; John Manos, vice president; Mike Dendrinos, secretary, and Harry Calogeris, treasurer. Headquarters of the organization are located at 104 South Broadway. — Camden Courier-Post, February 17, 1938.

Apparel for occasions the clock ’round will be modeled by members of the Camden Teachers’ Association on Monday night when that group will give a fashion show followed by bridge in the Hotel Walt Whitman in the interest of their welfare fund. The affair is being arranged under the direction of Mrs. Roy Mauger and will directly aid the vision correction fund. — Camden Courier-Post, February 18, 1938.

“Burlington County Night” will be observed by the West Jersey Pharmaceutical Association with a dinner in the Hotel Walt Whitman next Thursday night. Senator Clifford R. Powell, whose home is in Burlington county, will be the principal speaker. N. Herman Rappaport, of Camden, president, will be toastmaster. — Camden Courier-Post, February 18, 1938.

The Auxiliary to the Camden County Medical Society has planned a fashion show to be followed by cards for Monday evening, March 7, in the Hotel Walt Whitman. Mrs. H. Wesley Jack, of Haddonfield, is general chairman for the affair. — Camden Courier-Post, February 28, 1938.

A reception was held at the Walt Whitman Hotel, Camden, after which the couple left for a brief wedding trip. They are now at home at 34th and River Road, Camden. — Mays-Beideman wedding, the Alpha Community Baptist Church — (Mt. Holly) New Jersey Mirror, September 21, 1938.

With peace restored, the world should now become one great community and all men should live as neighbors, Herman H. Hanson, of Dover, Delaware, governor of Rotary District 184, told members of Camden Rotary Club yesterday. Hanson, state chemist of Delaware, spoke at the club’s weekly luncheon in the Hotel Walt Whitman. He cited the aims of Rotary and defined the organization as “friendship in action.” Everett Smalley presided.

As the City of Camden began to fall on hard times in the 1950s, the Walt Whitman Hotel’s maintenance began to suffer. In 1958, the Camden Chamber of Commerce, which had played a large part in the Walt Whitman’s construction, and which had been headquartered there for so many years, held its annual gala at the new Cherry Hill Inn in neighboring Delaware Township. In the previous three years, landmark Camden businesses such as Hurley’s department store, the Stanley Theater, the Towers Theater, and the Camden Courier-Post had either closed or moved to new homes in the suburbs.

This trend would continue, and eventually the Walt Whitman Hotel itself was closed. Interestingly enough, one of the last owners of the Walt Whitman was Joseph N. Hettel Jr., whose father Joseph N. Hettel Sr. was an architect who designed many Camden banks, apartments, and commercial buildings.