The Oasis Motel

After the erection of the Hotel Walt Whitman and the opening of the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, many of the same individuals involved in the hotel project became interested in establishing an athletic club on the new thoroughfare. This group was originally known as the City Athletic Club, and among its members were J. David Stern, publisher of the Evening Courier and Morning Post newspapers, James J. Scott, lawyer Ralph W. Wescott, and realtor Samuel B. Dobbs.

When this building opened up for the first time in 1933, the hopes for its future success and growth were quite high. The timing was all wrong, as the nation was in the throes of the Depression, and the City Athletic Club, which erected the building, did not remain viable. This was one of the first buildings beyond Sears Roebuck on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden. When plans were laid, no one really had any idea of what the boulevard would become in the near future, let alone 40 to 60 years later.

By 1947 the building was being used by the Y.M.C.A., but their tenure was short lived, and the group was out of the property by 1956. Around 1964 the building became the Oasis Motel, and with a liquor license opened up the lounge in the basement, known appropriately enough, as the Oasis Lounge.

In the early 1970s go-go dancers were featured at all four bars on Admiral Wilson Boulevard, eastbound there was the Admiral, then the Oasis, and lastly the French Quarter, at the city limits. By 1977 the Oasis Lounge became the Harem Lounge, but all that really had changed was the name. The bar did a fairly good business until the property was acquired by the State of New Jersey as part of then Governor Christie Whitman’s effort to impress national Republican leaders at the 2000 Convention. The effort netted her a Cabinet position, but Camden lost a bunch of tax paying businesses, exacerbating an already horrible financial situation.

As well as the bar did, the same could not be said about the motel upstairs. During the 60s and early 70s the building did a fair trade, especially with those coming across the bridge from Philadelphia for a little horizontal fun. Things went badly after that, as the Admiral Wilson Boulevard became known as a haven for prostitutes. The Oasis, badly damaged in a March 1987 fire, the Four Winds Motel, and the Wilson Motel throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s became notorious as bailiwicks of the working girls. It was a sad end for a building that had been erected with such high hopes.

First Unit of Building About Ready for Occupancy; Meeting on Monday

Plans for early occupancy of the City Athletic Club’s building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards, will be submitted to members at a mass meeting Monday at 7:30 p.m.

The first unit of the $1,000,000 structure is 95 percent completed, Samuel P. Orlando, secretary, said last night. Members will inspect the building before the meeting and act on a proposal by the board of governors to open the unit. Details of the plan will not be disclosed until the meeting.

The unit, built at a cost of $120,000, lacks only furnishing and minor interior décor to be ready for occupancy. Work on the other seven sections of the clubhouse will be completed later.

Construction of the project was started last January. The building is three stories and contains all modern club facilities. In the basement will be a grill, dormitories for employees and offices. The gymnasium, cloakroom, steam room, reception room, and solarium are on the first floor. The second floor is given over to reception and reading rooms, billiard parlor and squash courts. Main and private dining rooms, roof garden, barber shop and other rooms are on the third floor.

Plans for the building were drawn so that work on the other units can be started at any time.

Members Visit Building and Discuss Plans for Opening

The new City Athletic Club building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards was inspected last night by the membership, when plans for immediate opening were discussed at a mass meeting attended by 100.

The structure, the first unit of a $1,000,000 project, was built at a cost of $120,000. The clubhouse is artistically laid out and provides for every social and athletic activity.

Franklin P. Jones, president of the First National Bank of Beverly and chairman of the club’s finance committee; Samuel P. Orlando, secretary, and other officers of the club submitted reports and plans at the meeting which are expected to assure immediate opening of the club.

The club has 785 members, of which 600 are founder members. The land, comprising seven and one-half acres, was purchased for cash at $150,000. George W. Shaner & Sons, Palmyra, are the contractors, and Paul P. Cret and Joseph N. Hettel, the architects.

E. E. Shumaker, former president of the RCA Victor Company, is president of the club. The vice presidents are Eldridge R. F. Johnson, George L. McGinley and Charles W. Russ. George B. Yard, Jr., is treasurer. Construction of the first unit was started last January. The building is three stories. Plans for it were drawn so that work on the other units can be started at any time.

Members Approve Proposal to Provide New Capital to Finish Building

A plan for refinancing of the City Athletic Club was approved by several hundred members who met Monday night in the building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards.

The plan was submitted by Samuel P. Orlando, secretary of the club, and will be put before the board of governors of the club for ratification.

Under the plan as worked out by the club’s finance committee, of which Franklin P. Jones, president of the First National Bank of Beverly, is chairman, the refinancing will put all members on an equal basis and will provide the club with new capital to assure the completion of the building.

The plan calls for the creation of a mortgage of $125,000 or $130,000, of which amount it will be necessary to raise as new capital about $50,000. The balance of the mortgage, as explained by Orlando, represents the $50,000 mortgage which Eldridge R. Johnson, honorary president of the club, gave at a dinner in his honor in November, 1931, and also some $25,000 or $30,000 worth of debenture bonds issued at the time of the dinner.

“When that money was raised,” Orlando told the assemblage, “those who subscribed to the debenture bonds were given no security, other than the bonds which they were told were to be issued. It is in order to put everybody on the same level that this plan of raising one mortgage has been evolved. The remaining money will be used to assure successful operation of the club.”

Former Senator David Baird, a member of the board of governors, spoke in favor of the plan, as did George B. Yard, Jr., treasurer of the club and others. Charles W. Russ, vice president, presided.

It was reported that the project is now 95 percent completed. After the meeting, a tour of inspection of the first unit of the proposed $1,000,000 clubhouse was made.

By MARY HELEN GILLESPIE, Associated Press

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP)— A suspicious fire swept through a motel and go-go lounge early Friday, forcing visitors to jump from windows and injuring 16 people, and a motel guest was arrested and charged with arson, officials said.

Wade Ray King, 30, of Pennsauken, was arrested Friday evening at another motel 9 miles from the two-story Oasis Motel and its five-story Harem Lounge, said Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell.

King, who had cut his hair to disguise himself, was charged with a single count of aggravated arson, said Asbell.

“A lot of people had to jump,” motel guest Meta Barrow said.

About 30 people were rescued as flames and smoke engulfed the building, said Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell.

Ms. Barrow and her friend, Francis Davis, were treated at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center for smoke inhalation and burns and released. Fourteen other people also were injured, three seriously.

Officials combed buildings along a seedy stretch of transient motels, liquor stores and go-go bars about a mile from the Philadelphia city line.

“It’s always been a questionable spot,” said Asbell. “There have been a number of complaints and disturbances, but nothing like this.”

Ms. Barrow, 20, wearing an eye patch and a hospital gown over yellow slacks, said Davis lowered her out their motel window with a bed sheet as flames spread through the room.

“He lowered me down and told me not to jump. I was hysterical and screaming. There were flames everywhere,” Ms. Barrow said. “When the fireman came with the ladder, I just jumped on him.”

Glenn Rivers, 32, said he smelled smoke while getting ready for bed.

“The hallway was filled with smoke. I dashed through the window to the roof and got out just in time,” Rivers said. “The people who had been sleeping got hurt bad.”

Five people remained hospitalized on Friday, including two in serious and one in critical condition, hospital officials said.

Insurance adjusters at the scene said the motel complex was owned by Shambhu Inc. No other details on the owners were available.

By MARY HELEN GILLESPIE, Associated Press

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A guest who escaped a fire that injured 16 people at a motel and go-go lounge complex has been charged with setting the blaze that forced other patrons to jump from windows and roofs to escape, officials said.

Wade Ray King, 30, of Pennsauken was arrested Friday evening at another motel nine miles away and charged with a single count of aggravated arson, said Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell said.

King was registered in Room 214 of the Oasis Motel, where a three-alarm blaze broke out at 1:22 a.m. Friday, forcing the evacuation of 30 guests.

The fire was brought under control about an hour later, but not before 16 people were injured, including a pregnant woman and a firefighter. Hospitals on Friday reported one person in critical condition and one in serious condition.

The blaze started in the bed area of Room 214 and spread quickly because of the wood paneling on the walls, said Fire Inspector Paul Escher.

Authorities on Friday combed the burned-out buildings, located along a seedy stretch of transient motels, liquor stores and go-go bars featuring nude women dancers about a mile from the Philadelphia city line.

“It’s always been a questionable spot,” Asbell said. “There have been a number of complaints and disturbances, but nothing like this.”

Smoke detectors and fire alarms at the complex operated without any problems, Escher said.

But firefighters arrived at the scene to find people jumping from windows in the two-story motel and its five-story Harem Lounge, authorities said.

“A lot of people had to jump,” said motel guest Meta Barrow, 20, adding that a friend lowered her out their motel room window with a bed sheet as flames spread through the room.

“He lowered me down and told me not to jump. I was hysterical and screaming. There were flames everywhere,” Ms. Barrow said. “When the fireman came with the ladder, I just jumped on him.”

By John Way Jennings, Inquirer Staff Writer

A Pennsauken man, charged last year with having set a Camden motel fire that killed one person and injured 16 others, escaped yesterday from Ancora State Hospital in Winslow Township, according to Camden County police.

A broadcast message by the Camden County Police Communications Center said Wade Ray King, 30, of the 6700 block of Grant Avenue, escaped about 4 p.m. The escape occurred as he and other patients were being led from their restricted cottages to a cafeteria, according to Jacqueline Tencza, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Mental Health and Hospitals.

King, who was found not guilty in the case by reason of insanity, had been a patient for two weeks at Ancora, according to Tencza. She said that few details of the escape were known and that an investigation by hospital authorities was being conducted.

Tencza said it was not immediately known how many staff attendants and patients were going to the cafeteria when King hid somewhere along the way and managed to escape.

King was arrested March 27, 1987, at a motel on Black Horse Pike several hours after he was accused of having started a three-alarm fire in a room for which he was registered at the Oasis Motel on Admiral Wilson Boulevard.

After the arrest, Dennis G. Wixted, county first assistant prosecutor, said King had started the fire with matches. Investigators said Grant had started the fire in retaliation for having been robbed by two men who he said had kicked in the door of his room.

Bharti Patel, 19, of Norristown, who was related to the owner of the Oasis Motel, died of injuries suffered in the fire. More than 20 people escaped uninjured from the early-morning blaze, which caused more than $600,000 in damage to the motel.