THE YEAR 1830

SPAN OF A CENTURY
1828-1928
100 YEARS IN THE HISTORY OF CAMDEN AS A CITY

COMPILED FROM NOTES ANDS DATA COLLECTED BY
CHARLES S. BOYER
PRESIDENT CAMDEN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PUBLISHED BY
CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE
OF CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AND NOTES BY PHILLIP COHEN IN 2003

Benjamin Dugdale, son-in-law of James Kaighn, established a tannery on Cooper Street below Front, on the site of what became the Esterbrook Pen Company. In 1845 the place was used as a livery stable by Joseph Myers

“The Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of St. Paul’s Church, Camden,” was organized March 26, 1830, and the certificate of incorporation was filed in the clerk’s office of Gloucester County on April 30, 1830. For several years after the organization of the parish there was no Episcopal house of worship and religious services were held in the old Court House, old City Hall, on Federal Street below Fifth Street. On April 22, 1834 the cornerstone of St. Paul’s Church was laid by Bishop Doane. This building was erected on Lot No. 121 on the Map of Camden, and was purchased for $300, while the adjoining Lot No. 122 was obtained on a perpetual lease upon payment of $25 per year, ground rent. The church was constructed of unhewn stones and in 1846 a resolution was passed “that the unhewn stones of the church be covered with rough casting after the manner of the State House at Trenton and squared in imitation of stones”

In August of 1856, the church building was enlarged by the addition of transepts and extensions in the rear. In 1895 the parish building were erected and the church redecorated. In 1910 the front of the church was altered by the removal of the old wooden spire and the erection of a stone structure which extended the building line.