THE YEAR 1899

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

Another blizzard visited Camden on February 11, 1899, with a snowfall of 19 inches. The thermometer registers six degrees below zero. 

Th e new Post Office Building, at 3^rd and Arch Streets, was officially turned over to the U.S. Government on December 8, 1999, by the contractor, Charles McCaul. This was the first post office building in Camden owned by the United State Government. The building was opened for public inspection on January 31, 1900, and officially used as a Post Office for the first time on February 1, 1900 .

Free postal delivery was extended to East Camden and Cramer Hill on October 3, 1899 . 

Camden established its street cleaning department on June 29, 1899. Previously the work had been done by contract . 

The Manual Training and High School Building at Haddon and Newton Avenues was opened on October 17, 1899.  When the present Camden High School opened up in 1918, this school was renamed Clara Burrough Junior High School.

The New York Shipbuilding Company was organized in 1899 by Henry G. Morse. As an inducement to locate the plant in Camden, City Council agreed not to raise the assessed valuation of the land for twenty years. The company was incorporated on October 7, 1899 with a capital of $8,000,000. The plant embraced 141 acres of land with about 3600 feet of riverfront. The keel of the first vessel was laid November 27, 1900. 

The New York Shipbuilding Company These postcards are from before 1910 Click on Images to Enlarge

This great plant, one of the largest in this country, has built many vessels, from coal barges to battleships and aircraft carriers. On November 1, 1926, the New York Shipbuilding Corporation was acquired by the American Brown-Boveri Company, and was known in the late 1920s by the name of the latter company . 

The Camden Fire Insurance Association in 1899 erected a new building, designed by noted architect Arthur Truscott, at the site of the original location, the southwest corner of Fifth and Federal Streets.

The Camden Fire Insurance Association