Introduction
The Hi Step, at 2366 Broadway, near the corner of Broadway and Gordon Terrace, and Dave’s Grille, at 2360 Broadway, were two bars located opposite the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, in the “Terraces” section of Camden, along Broadway between the Bulson Street “hump” and Morgan Street. In 1947 there were also three restaurants in this section, serving the shipyard workers and the immediate neighborhood.
Owned and operated for many years by Charlie Kuski, the Hi Step survived into the mid 1990s. Charlie Kuski was still involved in the bar as late as June of 1967. He passed away in 1969. After his death, the bar went on into the mid-1990s under several different managers. The building at 2366 Broadway was razed along with most other houses in the “Terraces” around 2001.
Camden Beer Advertisement
Camden Courier-Post — circa 1950
Camden Beer newspaper advertisement featuring Charlie Kuski of the Hi Step Hotel, circa 1950.
Tricks Thug, Saves $9000
Camden Courier-Post —
Holdup in Auto At Traffic Stop Nets Thief $450
A holdup man robbed a South Camden hotel owner of $450 today but failed to get more than $9000 his victim was carrying in his pockets. Charles Kuski, 49, proprietor of the Hi-Step hotel, 2366 Broadway, saved the larger amount, police said, by ostensibly placing all the money he had withdrawn from a bank in a bank money bag but actually putting the smaller amount in the bag, which the holdup man took, before fleeing in Kuski’s car. The automobile was later found abandoned at Eighth street and Atlantic avenue.
Kuski told police he was returning to the hotel from the Broadway and Kaighn avenue branch of the Camden Trust Co., where he had drawn the money, about 9.45 a. m. when he stopped for a traffic light at Broadway and Atlantic avenue.
Told to Keep Quiet
As he stopped the car, Kuski said a man, about six feet tall and wearing dark glasses, opened the rear door, climbed in, and took the back seat, on which Kuski had tossed the bag containing $450. “Keep quiet and you won’t get hurt,” Kuski said the man told him, pointing a revolver at him. The man ordered him to continue south on Broadway and warned him, Kuski said, against making any outcry or trying to attract attention of passing motorists or pedestrians. As they neared Jackson street, Kuski said the holdup man told him to make a right hand turn there and “keep driving.” At Jackson and Fourth streets, Kuski said he was ordered to pull up to the curb and stop the car.
Ordered From Car
Remaining in the back seat, the man then told him, Kuski said, to get out and start walking toward Broadway. Looking back, Kuski said he saw the man get out of the back seat, clutching the money bag in one hand, take the wheel and drive away. Kuski walked the rest of the way to the hotel, where he called police and told them of the holdup. Patrol cars converged on the area and it was during this search that Kuski’s car was found. Photographs later were taken of the steering wheel and door handles in search of finger prints that might identify the robber.
Kuski told police he had drawn the money to be used in cashing pay checks of workers at the New York Shipbuilding Corp. Prior to an order of Director of Public Safety E. George Aaron barring the practice, Kuski said he always had been accompanied by police to and from the bank to get money for cashing pay checks.