McGuire Gardens
Welcome to the un-official McGuire Gardens Web page. Here you will find a web-page dedicated to the history of McGuire Gardens, the times in which it was first built, and images and text covering life at McGuire since it was built in 1954.
McGuire Gardens was named in honor of labor leader Peter J. McGuire, who spent a great deal of time in Camden.
Before McGuire Gardens was built, public housing was segregated in Camden. You will find on this page actual documents from the times. The English language constantly evolves, please remember that some of the documents were written using standard vocabulary and grammar in use in the 1940s and 1950s.
Phil Cohen
Proposed Site of Project 10-4
The proposed site of Project 10-4 — McGuire Gardens, February 1951.
Looking south from Berwick & Watson Streets, February 14, 1951.
Looking south from Boyd & Watson Streets, February 14, 1951.
Looking east from South 20th Street, February 14, 1951.
Looking south along Bank Street, February 14, 1951.
Looking east on Morse Street at the intersection of Morse & Berwick Streets, February 14, 1951.
Authority Acquires 1st Parcel Toward Housing Project
Camden Courier-Post —
The Camden Housing Authority on Monday acquired the first parcel of land on the tract where a 368-unit low-rent housing development in East Camden will be constructed at a cost of more than $4,492,000.
Mr. and Mrs. John Dyer were presented with a check by Joseph McComb, authority chairman, for their home at 2120 Berwick street.
Present in the Market Street Title Co. office on Cooper street, where the sale was consumated, were Raymond Osborn, authority solicitor; William Barnett, authority secretary; George Adkins, assistant secretary for development, and Thomas McGraw, representing the title company.
Osborn said that he is preparing for the purchase of 12 other tracts on the site, where the owners have agreed on the price offered by the authority.
Osborn said that it will be necessary to proceed with condemnation proceedings against 12 other parcels on the tract. He said that some of the owners have not been able to agree on a sale price; other owners can’t be located, and title is not clear to other sections of the land.
In addition to these parcels, Osborn said, 12 other parcels are owned by the city. He said negotiations are being made with the city for their purchase.
McComb said he expects that construction on the project, which is to be one block south of Federal street and Marlton pike, will be started in early fall. The tract is bounded by Morse and Randolph streets, and Bank and Watson streets, and cuts on a rectangle to Twentieth street.
FIRST CHECK for property to be acquired by the Camden Housing Authority for its proposed East Camden housing development, was presented to Mrs. John Dyer, of 2120 Berwick street, who is shown receiving the check from Joseph McComb, authority chairman.
Ellen Rico Banfill Remembers McGuire Gardens
2018
My mom and dad, my brother Arthur and myself, Ellen, moved there in 1956 from Audubon Park. My father accepted a job at the Camden Post Office. He led a band known as Steve Rico and his Royal Hawaiians, and worked at the Hawaiian Cottage. We walked to the neighborhood store we called Schultz’s grocery store. In the center of the projects was a play ground with a fenced in basketball court. My brother played with the twins, two tall young men who played there daily. I remember a large field we played in also. We went to Dudley School and then to St. Joseph’s. My father was run over and killed by the train on 36th Street. I now live in Deland, Florida.
— Ellen Rico Banfill, 2018
Man Sentenced In Kidnap-Holdup
Camden Courier-Post —
One of two men found guilty of involvement in the abduction of a Camden policeman and of robbing the McGuire Gardens Federal Housing Project on July 2, 1966, was sentenced to 5-8 years yesterday by Camden County Court Judge Anthony C. Mitchell.
Robert S. Davison, 34, a parolee from Corona, N.Y., at the time of the crimes, heard Judge Mitchell sentence him to 3-5 years and 2-3 years on two counts of robbery, to run consecutively, and 2-3 years for conspiracy to run concurrently.
Dherran Fitzgerald, 30, of Staten Island, N.Y., also was scheduled to be sentenced for the same crimes, but gained postponement when he asked his attorney to be present. Fitzgerald’s sentencing date was set for next Wednesday.
Pleads Guilty
Fitzgerald, also a parolee, pleaded guilty on May 1 to three counts of kidnapping, two of armed robbery and one of conspiracy. He was found guilty of the charges.
The kidnapping of Sgt. Ralph “Rcho” Ferrari and bystanders Pablo Rodriguez, 17, an employee of the housing project and Robert Smith, 63, a retired Philadelphia truck driver, after the $440 robbery threw Camden into a state of confusion.
Ferrari and Rodriguez were abducted at gun point in Ferrari’s patrol car after the policeman tried to question one of the suspects.
Abandoned in Motel
While attempting to ditch the patrol car, the abductor forced Smith, who had been sitting in his auto in a Pennsauken parking lot, to drive him and the captives to Linden, N.J.
The gunman abandoned them there, bound and gagged in a motel room. Smith worked himself free and released the others.
Also sentenced yesterday were Blase F. Savatore of Ivy Lane East, Cherry Hill, and Carmen Zipilla, 34, of the 1600 block 33rd Street, Pennsauken.
Savatore was given a 2-3 year suspended sentence on two counts of operating a lottery and one of bookmaking and fined $2,000.
Zipilla received the same sentence.
Kidnaper Sentenced To 30 Years
Camden Courier-Post —
Charged with kidnaping a Camden policeman and two other men in a patrol car after a holdup 10 months ago, 30-year-old Dherran J. Fitzgerald yesterday drew a 30-35 year term in state prison.
The sentence was imposed by County Judge Anthony C. Mitchell after Fitzgerald — a Staten Island, N.Y., parolee — changed his plea from innocent to guilty.
The kidnaping charge stems from the Sept. 2, 1966, abduction of Sgt. Rcho (Ralph) Ferrari and two other men — Pablo Rodriguez, 17, an employe of the McGuire Gardens federal housing project, and Robert Smith, 63, a retired Philadelphia truck driver.
They were kidnaped shortly after $440 was taken from the McGuire Gardens office, according to police.
Ferrari and Rodriguez were abducted at gun point in Ferrari’s patrol car after the policeman tried to question one of the suspects, police reported.
The abductor forced Smith, who had been sitting in his auto in a Pennsauken parking lot, to drive him and the captives to Linden, according to police.
There they were abandoned by the gunman who left them bound and gagged in a motel room. Smith worked himself free and released the others.
Last week 34-year-old Robert S. Davison, a Corona, N.Y., parolee, who pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery, was sentenced by Judge Mitchell to five-eight years. The sentence included three-five years and two-three years on each of two counts of robbery, to run consecutively, and two-three years for conspiracy to run concurrently.
Fitzgerald yesterday drew 30 to 35 year terms for two other kidnaping indictments with which he was charged. But the sentences are to run concurrently with the first term.
The jurist also sentenced Fitzgerald to three-five year and two-three year terms on each of two counts of robbery. These also are to run concurrently with the first sentence. A two-three year sentence for conspiracy was suspended.
An indictment charging Fitzgerald with theft of the car was dismissed.
Cleanup Day
2045 Westminster Avenue, cleanup day, May 1974.
Al Ashley, May 1974.
Residents at work, May 1974.
Art Devlin Remembers McGuire Gardens
2018
My name is Art Devlin. I am 66 years old, and lived with my family in the McGuire Gardens in the early 60s. We first lived on Westminster, and then moved to 2039 Berwick Street… funny how I still remember that address. We had fallen on hard times as my father didn’t make much and there were three children to feed. I remember so many things about the place, and in fact, it still feels like home to me in my mind. I’ve Google Mapped it and it has sure improved from those days.
I don’t know if segregation was still in effect, but there were no black families and only one Puerto Rican family in the entire complex… maybe a coincidence; I can’t say. We were poor, white folks that lived on welfare after my father contracted TB and was hospitalized. The milkman and the bread man helped us get by with credit the last week of each month. Once Dad was back, alcoholism took him over and he and mom split-up. We eventually moved to Cramer Hill, then to Somerdale, NJ. The city was rough so the change was good.
The McGuire buildings had flat, tar and gravel roofs then. I know because we used to scale them with our sneakers jammed between the iron rain pipes and the red brick walls. Once on top it was a new world with all manner of lost junk up there… sneakers, pimple balls, rocks, baseballs, whiffle balls and bats, etc. Getting down was scary though, but no one ever fell, thank God. Sometimes we would hide up there to escape the kids that were after us. We also used the crawlspaces as forts; digging holes in the yellow clay and taking shelter from the summer heat.
When the grass got high, we trekked to the office where Mrs. Soistmann, the superintendent and a scary authority figure, had her office. We would be given a loaner push-mower which we would return when the lawn was… chopped.
We also explored the fields between the Gardens and Admiral Wilson Boulevard. We were always trying to hunt rodents with slingshots, build forts, or investigate the mulberry tree grove where the huffers would leave their empty glue tubes and bags from their overnight activities. We were always puzzled by the evidence and incredulous at what they were doing and why.
Finally, at the age of twelve in 1964, I remember seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in that little end-row house. I now know that it was early February, which I didn’t remember, but I do remember it being a Sunday night of course. Afterwards I ran out of the house into an unseasonably mild night and tried to grasp what just transpired.
So, maybe you can see why it still feels like home to me. It was there when I became aware of being alive I guess you could say.
— Art Devlin, June 10, 2018
McGuire Gardens Reborn
Work on completely rebuilding McGuire had begun in the early 1990s, but stalled due to mismanagement. The project was completed by the administration of Dr. Maria Marquez, who was appointed Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Camden in the summer of 1999. The event mentioned below took place on August 12, 2002.
McGuire Gardens reborn, August 12, 2002.
Bank Street & Raritan Street, August 2, 2002.
191 Morse Street
Southwest corner of Bank Street & Morse Street — 191 Morse Street, July 21, 2004.
Morse Street & Bank Street
Looking west on Morse Street from Bank Street, July 21, 2004.
Looking south on Bank Street from Morse Street, July 21, 2004.