A Bar

On Locust Street between Line and Spruce Streets, the A Bar was in existence as early as 1917. Rodolfo DiPaolo is listed as the proprietor in the Camden City Directories as early as that year, and he was still running the place as late as 1947. Rodolfo DiPaolo was the younger brother of Antonio DiPaolo, who operated a saloon at 713 South 3rd Street from the late 1900s through the early 1920s. Antonio DiPaolo went on to found the First Italian Bank in 1919 and later the Victory Trust, and was a leading citizen in Camden for many years.

Rodolfo DiPaolo later anglicized his name to Rudolph. Born in Italy on December 9, 1885, he came to America in 1906, and originally worked as a carpenter. He learned the bar business while living with his older brother, with whom he was residing in 1910. Rodolfo DiPaolo married around 1920. The 1930 Census shows that he had purchased a home at 418 Spruce Street where he and his wife lived. The Census shows her name to be Sadie, while the 1947 City Directory names her Rosaria. Rudolph DiPaolo would make his home at 418 Spruce Street through at least the fall of 1959. He later moved to Gloucester City, where he resided when he died in May of 1965.

The A Bar is listed in the New Jersey Bell Telephone Directories for 1956 and 1959. Caesar Campana Sr., who had previously run bars in North Camden, acquired the A-Bar by 1954. He is listed as living at 824 Locust Street in the 1956 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory.

The 1964 and 1966 phone books show the business as Campana’s A Bar. Apparently the bar changed hands that year. In June of 1967 Richard N. Musselman of 251 Lowell Avenue, Mt. Ephraim NJ applied for a liquor license renewal for the A-Bar. The bar then took up 820–822–824–826 Locust Street.

By 1970 the New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory shows 826 Locust Street as Dick’s A Bar. Dick’s A Bar remained open for business as late as 1990. Today it and every other building that stood on Locust Street is gone, alive only in memory.