The Frosty Mug

Arlington Street was a one-block street, running parallel to Broadway between Chelton Avenue and Jefferson Street. The block was developed prior to World War I. It is unknown as of this writing whether 2051 Arlington was in use as a saloon prior to 1920. In any event, by the time the Census was taken in January of 1920, Prohibition had become the law of the land. 2051 Arlington Street had by then been rented to George Wallace, a Canadian immigrant who was a foreman at the nearby New York Shipbuilding Corporation. With his wife Nora, he operated a boarding house at the address and had 12 fellow employees at the shipyard as tenants in January of 1920. Evelyn Thomas is listed as the proprietor in the 1924 Camden City Directory.

By 1931 Stanley Wojciechowski was operating the Rosemont Cafe at 2051 Arlington Street. Born in Poland around 1888, he had come to America in 1905. He married Stella Kolecki around 1928, taking in her children Chester, Violet, Stella, and Frances Kolecki. After he passed away during the 1930s, his wife Stella operated the business and is noted as the proprietor in the 1940 Camden City Directory. In these years, with the neighborhood filled with workers from the many surrounding factories, the Rosemont Cafe and the many other bars in the neighborhood did quite well.

The 1947 Camden City Directory indicates that Stella Kolecki married Durward Horner but was a widow by 1947. Stella Horner owned and operated the bar into the early 1970s. With most of the factories virtually closed, times became tough in the Eighth Ward. By 1977 the Rosemont Cafe had changed hands and was known as the Frosty Mug. The bar closed its doors once and for all by 1982. Over the next twenty years, Arlington Street slowly deteriorated to the point where by 2002 only eight buildings on the street were occupied.

The Rosemont Cafe, and the rest of Arlington Street, was razed due to environmental concerns in February of 2004. By the 9th of February, you would never have known it was even there.