Charles H. Klump's Saloon

On the late 1880s and early 1890s the Camden City Directories show that Thomas Madden was in the liquor business at 11 South 3rd Street.

By 1916 there were two bars existing side-by-side at 9 and 11 South 3rd Street. Charles Klump was the proprietor of 11 South 3rd at that time, and appears as the owner in the Camden City Directories through 1929. Charles Klump was born in New Jersey in 1881, and was a lithographer and printer by trade. He was married to Sarah Patterson in the 1900s; sadly, she passed away in 1909. He remarried not long afterwards. Directories from 1911 through 1913 show him at 1101 Broadway. He would have then been in rented lodgings as this was Adam Davis’ saloon and hotel then known as The Palace. One can deduce that it was here that Charles Klump learned much about owning and operating a bar.

By 1914 Charles Klump and second wife Marion had settled in at 1374 Haddon Avenue, which would be his residence for the rest of his days. Charles Klump got into the bar business shortly before the 1916 City Directory was compiled. He passed away in 1929. Mrs. Marion Klump still owned the bar as late as 1934, as she is named in a Camden Courier-Post article as a tavern owner. She had by 1930 moved to 347 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood NJ. No further directories were published until 1940; however, it appears that new management was in place by 1936. Marion Klump never remarried. She died in 1963 and was buried in Harleigh Cemetery next to her husband.

Joseph J. O’Brien appears in the 1936 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory as operating the tavern. He also is mentioned in the “Philip A. Glass” advertising column that appeared in the Camden Courier-Post in October of 1936. “Philip A. Glass” was a pen name, the pun being “Fill Up A Glass”; the column featured snappy commentary about various bars and nightclubs throughout Camden and upper Gloucester Counties.

The bar was not listed in the 1940 Camden City Directory. The building appears to have been converted to residential use by 1947, when a porter, Culver Parsons, and his wife Helen appear in the City Directory as residing there.