Hurley's Department Store
Founded in 1890, Hurley's Department Store was a fixture in the Camden and South Jersey retail business scene until 1956, when the Hurley family closed the business.
The business, originally called Gately & Hurley, was originally located in the old Wildey Hall at 4th and Pine Streets. Founder William Leonard Hurley assumed sole ownership in 1904. By this time the company had located their flagship store on the south-west corner of Broadway and Pine Street. William Leonard Hurley passed away early in 1928. His son Jerome, along with brothers James V. and Harry A. Moran, carried the business forward.
In 1947, the store underwent a major renovation, as described in the newspaper article below. By that time, the Hurley chain had expanded to include a total of seven stores, including locations in East Camden, Penns Grove, Trenton, Millville, Wilmington DE, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.
Hurley's was noted for its personnel, many of whom worked for the concern for decades. Harry A. Moran, who was general manager of the business in the 1930s and 1940s, retired in 1944 after 46 years with the firm. His brother James V. Moran also worked for Hurley's for over four decades.
Hurley's closed in 1956. While the business had suffered due to competition from other, larger stores, the closing was as much a product of a lack of a succession plan for the business. The store's closing, however, was a portent of things to come later for Camden.
Hurley's — 1943
Hurley's Department Store, 1943
Gately & Hurley — 1890s
Gately & Hurley, 1890s
Business Men in Line
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Organizing a Sound Money League in Camden.
A movement has been started in Camden to organize a Sound Money League of business men. An address has been issued, which says:
“Believing that the adoption of the Chicago platform as our national policy would be a menace to the welfare and prosperity of our country and realizing that those engaged in commercial enterprises would be the first to endure the evils resulting from the radical methods indorsed therein, it is important that business interests of the country should be allied in an aggressive movement in favor of a stable financial policy.
“It is proposed to organize the Business Men’s Sound Money League of Camden, and the co-operation of all those engaged in mercantile, manufacture or other business callings or occupations is solicited, irrespective of past party affiliation, to unite in the formation of a league for the election of McKinley and Hobart, as the representatives of sound money.”
The address is signed by Democrats as well as Republicans. Among the signers are the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company, Farr & Bailey, Gately & Hurley, Toone & Hollingshed, Frank D. Sitley & Sons, Howland Croft, George D. Van Sciver, William S. Scull, Anthony Kobus and John Campbell, Jr.
It is proposed that the organization shall take an active part in the campaign
She Dared Men to Touch the ‘Pants’
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Camden Woman Planted a Pole, Decorated It With Pair Trousers and Flourished a Revolver
Flourishing a revolver and exclaiming, “I’ll kill the first man who touches those pants; this is fair warning to everybody, for I mean what I say!” Mrs. Louisa Traubel, of 807 Broadway, Camden, yesterday held up work on the addition being erected to the Gately and Hurley Company’s department store at Broadway and Spruce Street.
Mrs. Traubel claimed one of the walls was being constructed three inches over the line of the property belonging to her father, George Fields. She consulted City Engineer Levi Farnham, who decided the wall was a fraction of an inch over the line. Then Contractor John Welsh was notified to stop work, but without the desired result.
Hurley's — 1918–1919 City Directory Ad
Hurley’s, 1918–1919 Camden City Directory advertisement
Hurley's — 1919 Camden High School Yearbook Ad
Hurley’s, 1919 Camden High School Purple & Gold Yearbook advertisement
Judge Frank T. Lloyd Accepts Chairmanship of Unemployment Committee
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Circuit Court Judge Frank T. Lloyd yesterday accepted chairmanship of the Camden Chamber of Commerce Committee which is to study the unemployment question and make suggestions for remedial measures. With Judge Lloyd on the committee are: Alban Eavenson, of Eavenson & Levering; Belford G. Royal, of the Victor Talking Machine Company; Congressman Francis F. Patterson; Mayor Charles H. Ellis; former United States Senator David Baird; L. A. Hawkes, of the Hunt Pen Company; Frank Vanhart, president of City Council, and an official of the Esterbrook Pen Company; John Prentice, director of the Board of Freeholders; Burleigh B. Draper, of the Broadway Trust Company; A. C. Dorrance, of the Campbell Soup Company; Lawyer William S. Darnell; C. W. Tomlinson, of the R. M. Hollinshed Company; James V. Moran, of the Hurley Company; Rev. Thomas J. Whelen, pastor of the Church of the Holy Name; L. D. Johnson, of the State Employment Bureau; Rev. Charles B. Dubell, rector of St. John’s P. E. Church; Elmer E. Long, of Munger & Long; Mrs. Dr. A. H. Lippincott; Mrs. W. Penn Carson and Mrs. Harry Pelouze.
The committee was named by William E. Bennett, president of the Chamber of Commerce, whose aims are to have an immediate inquiry with the idea of a report being made by the end of the month.
Victor Wins Three and Ties for Lead
Camden Courier-Post —
Y.M.C.A. Jolted Twice; Freihofers Set Record; Hurley Surprises
With the end of the first-half race in the Industrial bowling tournament only one week off, Victor went into a tie for first place by sweeping all three games from Woodbury while Freihofer’s spanked Y.M.C.A pacesetters twice. Hurley Company took three from Warren Webster in the other match.
Freihofer’s set a new league record by rolling 928 in the third game. Krupp’s total score was 602 pins, an average better than 200. His high mark was 221. Miller, a teammate, rolled 203. Moyer, of Victor, twice rolled 202, while Simmons turned in a 210 for Warren Webster.
Hurley Store Nears 38th Anniversary
Camden Courier-Post —
Wednesday to Mark Birthday of Successful Enterprise of Merchant
One of Camden’s largest retail business’ enterprises will observe its thirty-eighth anniversary Wednesday.
The Hurley store, Broadway and Pine Street, has played a conspicuous part in the city’s history for almost half its first 100 years that will come to a close February 18.
It was on February 1, 1890, that William Leonard Hurley opened his first store in practically the same location where the present modern store stands. The original store had a frontage of 20 feet, a depth of 30…
Associated with him at the start and continuously since was James V. Moran, who is also now the supervising director of the five other Hurley stores located in Trenton, Atlantic City, Bridgeton, Wilmington, and Wilkes-Barre. A few years later Harry A. Moran came into the organization and is now the general manager of the Camden store.
Meanwhile, men who helped Hurley pioneer what is now a big business, have become partners in the stores of other cities. Tobin, of Hurley-Tobin, Trenton; Jones, of Hurley-Jones, Atlantic City; Powell, of Hurley-Powell, Wilmington, and Loughran, of Hurley-Loughran, Wilkes-Barre.
Hurley has not only figured in a big way in retail business development locally, but his entire local organization has contributed materially to all civic activities. While the business of the Camden store for years centered mainly in Camden, they now have thousands of customers throughout all South Jersey. The main store in Camden and warehouses adjoining, occupy most of the block from Fifth to Broadway and Pine to Division streets.
Hurley's Advertisement
Camden Courier-Post —
Hurley Gets Contract for Police Uniforms
Camden Courier-Post —
Contract for new police uniforms was awarded yesterday to the Hurley store by the city commission, which heretofore had contracted with a Philadelphia firm.
Changes in the uniforms of several of the police departments are planned by Chief Lewis H. Stehr and Captain Arthur Colsey. Because many bus companies have adopted uniforms similar to those of the police for their drivers, the new uniforms for the mounted police will include blue coat, blue hat and khaki breeches. Police attached to the ambulance patrol will wear dark gray whipcord uniforms. Traffic police and others will wear the regular blue uniform now in use.
Uniform inspection will be held Monday to ascertain the department’s needs.
Hurley's Pledges $100,000 Bank Aid
Camden Courier-Post —
Store Here Supports Depositors in Phila. Banks; Lauds Record
The Hurley Store yesterday pledged $100,000 credit to South Jersey depositors in any closed Philadelphia bank.
This pledge supporting the plan outlined by the Philadelphia Record, swells the total to more than $4,000,000. It was made through Harry A. Moran, general manager of the William L. Hurley Company.
Among the new credit pledges made by Philadelphia merchants and business interests are $500,000 by Stern & Co., and $250,000 by S. Kind & Son.
The Record plan, as outlined last week, advocates issuance by the Pennsylvania State Banking Department of negotiable certificates of deposit to those whose funds are tied up in closed banks. A merchant, under the plan, would agree, on presentation of the certificate, to advance a credit of 50 percent of the sum estimated as the liquidating dividend to be paid by the closed bank.
Moran, in a letter to the Record wrote:
“Congratulations upon your conception of this timely help to so many of those who temporarily, at least, cannot call into use money urgently needed to provide seasonable requirements.
“Work, in the interest of the public welfare, that the Record is continually sponsoring of which the proposed release of bank funds is just one instance, shows the masses that your policies are decidedly in aid of the public welfare, particularly in these times of pressing need.”
The plan was advanced to relieve distress among depositors of Philadelphia banks and at the same time speed up trade recovery. Accomplishment of the plan would make possible the creation of at least $10,000,000 of Christmas business for Philadelphia merchants, it is estimated.
Stores Will Join in Bargain Period
Camden Courier-Post —
Merchants’ Association Announces Plans for Three-Day Event
A committee of the Merchants’ Cooperative Association, headed by Harry A. Moran, secretary and manager of the Hurley Store, has announced a three-day co-operative promotion which will be known as Camden’s Co-operation Days.
All merchants of this city have been invited to participate in the event which will be outlined in newspaper and radio announcements. City and store decorations and entertainment features which may include the personal appearances of stage, radio, sports and screen stars are being arranged.
The whole event has been arranged because of recent disclosures, resulting from investigation made by the local publishers proving that local industrial employment and business conditions have shown a decided upward trend in the city within the past several months.
The committee includes Charles Gates, Camden manager of Sears, Roebuck & Company; J. B. Van Sciver, Jr. of J. B. Van Sciver; C. A. McGrew, manager of J. C. Penney; Lester Abrahamson of Lester’s; S. Savage of Western Auto Supply; William Rothman of Barrett’s Tire Shop; Leonard R. Baker of Baker-Flick; Samuel Auerbach of Auerbach’s; N. Futernick of Futernick’s; Max Peck of the Fashion Shop; Simon Abrahamson of Simon’s; Michael LaSala of DiJulio-LaSala; Joseph Murdock, manager of the Stanley Theatre; W. L. Tushingham, business manager, and F. J. Kinsella, advertising director of the Courier-Post newspapers.
Pre-Inventory Sale Gives Real Bargains
Camden Courier-Post —
Hurley Store Offers Goods at Prices Considerably Lower Than Usual
With wholesale prices on raw materials and finished products mounting, the Hurley Store, at Broadway and Pine Street, is conducting a pre-inventory sale in which merchandise is offered at considerably lower than existing prices.
“Higher prices are coming. Put your money in merchandise, at today’s low prices, and make a sound investment in a perfect security,” is the store’s slogan for the special sale.
Harry A. Moran, manager of the Hurley Store, said it has been its regular policy to hold the pre-inventory sale there at the end of June, when it takes place in the other stores of the Hurley group at the same time.
“Our sole object,” Moran said, “is to dispose of as much merchandise as possible so that our Summer inventory will be reduced to a minimum. This year, although we know replacement values on all merchandise in our pre-inventory clearance will be higher than that of our present stocks, we are following our regular custom. We have every reason to believe that we are thus performing a worthy service for old patrons and those who will wish to take advantage of these offerings for the first time.”
Moran added that in the face of rising costs it is a noteworthy fact that retail stores, generally, continue to dispose of present stocks at prices based on actual cost rather than advance their retail price levels in keeping with present-day replacement values.
Harry A. Moran
Camden Courier-Post —
General Manager of Hurley Company Says July Business Best in History
Harry A. Moran, secretary and general manager of the W. L. Hurley Company, today begins his 39th year with the Hurley Store. The store itself is in its 46th year as one of Camden's leading retail establishments.
Starting as boys in the store, Moran and his brother, James V., now vice president and treasurer, worked their way up through various departments and official capacities. Both have been outstanding in civic, commercial and social activities of the community.
Under Harry A. Moran’s supervision the store was recently renovated in many departments and modeled along the lines of the most modern trend in retail merchandising.
“We are closing the best July in the history of the Hurley Store,” he said last night, “and as this follows a June of similar record-breaking volume, we feel justified in having set as our goal for the year a figure that, if reached, will give us the finest sales volume the store has ever had.
“Part of our splendid increase is undoubtedly due to the betterment in general conditions and particularly those affecting the Camden retail trading area. The larger portion, however, is, we feel, due to an aggressive sales policy, the backbone of which has always been liberal use of newspapers to carry out merchandising messages to the people of this community.”
Hurley's Advertisement
Camden Courier-Post —
Hurley's Advertisement
Camden Courier-Post —
Moran at 72 Observes Birthday by Working
Camden Courier-Post —
James V. Moran, vice president of the chain of Hurley stores, yesterday quietly observed his 72nd birthday anniversary. Many friends of “J. V.,” his business associates and others, joined in extending felicitations.
“I don’t work too hard and I find time for relaxation,” said Moran. “I have reduced my waistline by careful eating and I never felt better in my life.”
Moran put in his usual full day in his office at the W. L. Hurley store, Broadway and Pine Street.
Hurley's Renovation
Camden Courier-Post —
27th Street & Federal Street, April 30, 1953
Intersection of North 27th Street & Federal Street, as seen from Baird Boulevard, April 30, 1953.
See the billboard for Hurley’s East Camden store in the background, not to mention the rows and rows of tulips on Baird Boulevard! Thanks to Curtis Parrish for furnishing this picture.
Hurley's Store Brought Luxury to Camden
Courier-Post
By Harold T. Nedd, Courier-Post Staff
The retail stores that gave Broadway in downtown Camden City its luster five decades ago can be found in the pages of the biography of Chuck Doyle’s grandfather.
The book on the life of retail magnate William Leonard Hurley depicts a bustling shopping strip near a Waterfront that in the 1940s spawned industries that had an impact on the world.
And the two-story Hurley department store at Broadway and Pine stood as a once-proud symbol of a thriving industrial city.
“The store took up half the block,” said Doyle, 71, whose mother, Berenice, was one of Hurley’s four daughters. “It was a full-scale department store with jewelry, appliances, rugs and beddings. And my grandfather was well regarded as being a very honest business man.”
Pedestrian traffic used to be shoulder to shoulder along the corridor of shops and various ethnic restaurants. Two large theaters with live performances from the likes of Abbott and Costello helped draw shoppers to the strip. And the Hurley’s store was one of seven or eight department stores at the center of the activity.
“I never saw an empty store when I used to walk down there after school,” said Robert Doyle, 69, Chuck’s younger brother who lives in Haddonfield. “It was like what downtown Philly is today.”
As industries like Campbell Soup, the manufacturer of condensed canned soup, thrived, so did the Hurley store, which one former customer described as a smaller version of the now-defunct Lit Brothers department store in downtown Philadelphia.
Chuck Doyle believes his grandfather’s success as a retailer in Camden hinged on two things: he was the first merchant to introduce credit at his stores, sending salesmen into the country with vanloads of merchandise to sell to women who didn’t have transportation to get to town.
And if there was “anything wrong with something you bought from his store, you could always return it and he would take care of it,” said Doyle, a retired salesman from Audubon who worked in the store growing up.
Marie DelRoccili, 66, of Cherry Hill, remembers the store from the days growing up in the neighborhood around 4th and Cherry Street, a less than five-minute walk from the Hurley’s store.
“When we needed something special…like an Easter outfit…that’s where we went,” said DelRoccili, referring to the many Friday night shopping outings with her younger sister Rose Giuffre. “They (Hurley’s) had a better quality of merchandise.”
The store remained popular until it closed in 1956. It succumbed to competition from larger stores that moved to the suburbs, Doyle said. At the same time, the city’s economy was fizzling: companies like the shipyard shut down, jobs left by the tens of thousands and despair moved into neighborhoods where their employees once lived.
The city’s population would drop from its peak of 125,000 in the 1950s to an estimated 87,000 today, marking an exodus to the suburbs.
“A combination of things eventually led to the store’s demise,” said Chuck Doyle. “And while there was an attempt to get the store to the suburbs, provisions weren’t made within the family for succession. There was no leadership left in the family.”
Hurley's East Camden Store
Camden Courier-Post —
Broadway at Spruce Street — September 18, 1951
Broadway, looking north at the intersection of Spruce Street, September 18, 1951.
The vertical HURLEY’S sign can be seen on left side of the street. Collins, at far left, was at that location from the 1930s through the 1960s. The “STERN” building was originally the H. Pinsky & Son Co.
Broadway at Pine Street — September 18, 1951
Broadway, looking south at the intersection of Pine Street, September 18, 1951.
Of the buildings easily seen in this photo, only the “New York Fur Factory FURRIERS” building still stands in 2005.
The Vacant Hurley Building on Fire — March 27, 1977
The vacant Hurley building on fire, March 27, 1977