Introduction
Frederick Fielder Jr. lived at 939 Market Street and operated a cigar store there in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The building was still used as a cigar store in 1924, when Francis Yost was in business at the address. Its location across from the R. M. Hollingshead chemical factory made it a convenient commercial site. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the property shifted from retail to tavern use, and a liquor license was obtained.
In June 1939, the Camden Courier‑Post reported that John Stevenson received a renewal of the liquor license for the property. City directories from 1947 also list a bar at this location.
By 1954, the New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory identified the establishment as the Nine Thirty Nine Bar. The 1959 directory shows Pink Poodle Inc. operating a bar at the address. Shortly afterward, Martin “Marty” Baskow, who had previously run a vending‑machine business in East Camden, acquired the bar and operated it with his wife, Ella. Their daughter, Jaki Baskow, recalls that the business was still known as the Nine Thirty Nine Bar as late as the summer of 1967, a detail confirmed by contemporary news accounts. That summer, Marty Baskow was murdered inside the tavern, an event that received significant local coverage and marked the final chapter in the building’s long commercial life. By that time, most businesses in the 900 block of Market Street had already closed in anticipation of the construction of Interstate Route 676, completed in the 1980s. The project ultimately led to the demolition of the Nine Thirty Nine Bar.
Today, a traffic light stands at North 10th and Market Street, but no building occupies the corner where the bar once stood.