The Wilson Building
The Wilson Building, southeast corner of Broadway & Cooper Street.
The 12 story Wilson Building was built in 1926 by John O. Wilson and Joseph Bernhard at a cost of approximately $1,000,000. The building housed stores on the first floor, including for many years Weitzman Liquors. The rest of the building contained offices. Many persons and businesses of note maintained offices there over the years, including lawyers Samuel P. Orlando, Angelo Malandra, Ralph W. Wescott, and Judge Albert E. Burling.
In 1929 the building was sold to the West Jersey Trust Company at a $150,000 profit, and the building was known as The West Jersey Trust Building in the 1930s. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took the building over in 1939, and it was later sold to a Baltimore MD based group, the Broadway-Cooper Corporation.
The July 2, 1948 edition of the Camden Courier-Post reported that the building was sold to Dr. Joseph Waldman, of Wilmington DE.
The building became vacant in the 1990s. As of February 2004 the building stood vacant. At that time, Camden’s Board of Education had designs on the site, but they were not allowed to demolish the building and adjacent properties then in use. In 2010 the building was acquired by Dysart Ventures of New York City, New York. Dysart is upgrading and modernizing the building for retail and office use.
Early 1930s Postcard
The Wilson Building, early 1930s.
Camden High School Purple & Gold Yearbook, January 1928
Named: Plan Your Financial Future Through Insurance.
Daylight Offices
Camden Courier-Post —
Daylight Offices
CLEAN — COOL — COMFORTABLE
INFORMATION OFFICE 301
West Jersey Trust Building — Broadway and Cooper Street — Camden, New Jersey
Wilson Bldg. Is Sold for $700,000
Camden Courier-Post —
Wilmington Man Buys Structure at B’way, Cooper
The 12-story Wilson building at Broadway and Cooper street, was sold today for a reported $700,000. The sale, made by A. J. Rosenfeld, realtor, of Camden, was to Dr. Joseph Waldman, of Wilmington, Del., as an investment for him.
It was purchased from the Broadway-Cooper Corp. a group of Baltimore bankers headed by George Englar.
In purchasing the building, the Wilmington doctor bought all the common stock of the company subject to the existing bond issues, which are slightly in excess of a half million dollars.
The 140 by 40 foot building, which has stores on the ground floor, is used exclusively as an office structure.
It was built in 1926 by John O. Wilson and Joseph Bernhard at a cost of approximately $1,000,000.
In 1929 it was purchased by the West Jersey Trust Co. The sale price then was $1,050,000.
The building was taken over in 1939 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a government agency, and later was sold to the Broadway-Cooper Corp.
The Wilson Building, December 2002
The Wilson Building, December 2002.
Weitzman Liquors
Weitzman Liquors at Broadway & Cooper Street, in The Wilson Building.