Iggy's Cafe

1600 Broadway became a bar at some point after 1891. Previously it had been used as a grocery and as a cigar store. During the years leading up to Prohibition, it was known as Jack’s Cafe. During the 1920s the establishment remained open, serving near beer, under a series of different saloon keepers. Hugh T. Greenan had the bar in 1924 and into 1926, while the 1928 Camden city directory reveals that Edmund A. Walsh was conducting business there.

By April of 1930 Polish-born Ignatius “Iggy” Torech was living at 1600 Broadway. A veteran of World War I, he was renting the building at the time, although it is possible that it belonged to Jacob Maurer. When the 1931 Camden City Directory was published, Jacob Maurer, who had done business at various locations in Camden, was listed as the barkeep.

After being re-licensed as a bar when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, 1600 Broadway was known as Iggy’s Cafe through at least 1943.

The bar was known as the Jackson Cafe by 1946, Walter Boguszewski being the proprietor, with his wife Pauline. The Boguszewskis had come to Camden from Philadelphia after 1930, Walter then being a shipyard worker. They later moved to the Delair section of Pennsauken NJ.

The Jackson Cafe remained in business until the late 1960s when it was sold. The bar was known in the 1970s as the Mr. Broadway Bar. By the 1990s both Mr. Broadway and the building at 1600 Jackson Street were gone.