Hotel Ridgway
The West Jersey Hotel at Delaware Avenue and Market Street was built by the West Jersey Ferry Company in 1849. It was run by different parties through the ensuing years. Stephen Parsons operated the business from 1884 until his passing in 1890.
The name was changed to New Camden Hotel in 1909, and not long afterwards the name was again changed, this time to the Hotel Ridgway and passed to the management of the company operating the Ridgeway House at the foot of Market Street, Philadelphia. The porches and cupola which adorned the original structure were removed in December of 1911.
The Hotel Ridgway was still in business as late as October of 1953. The discontinuation of ferry service between Philadelphia and Camden doomed the old hotel, and it was demolished not long after it closed.
Hotel Ridgway, 1914
Hotel Ridgway, 1914. Top: southeast corner of Market Street & Delaware Avenue. Middle: northeast corner of Market Street & George Street.
Freeman Brothers Letter, April 27, 1914
Letter from Freeman Brothers to William A. Moncure regarding the sale of the Hotel Ridgway property, dated April 27, 1914.
Hotel Ridgway Postcard, c. 1918
While the airplane indicates that this postcard dates from around 1918, the drawing of the Hotel Ridgway is from before 1911. Note the cupola on the roof of the hotel.