Introduction
Arthur B. Gill was born on December 16, 1878 in Wilbraham, MA, and received his B.S. at Pennsylvania State University in 1900 before moving to Philadelphia and pursuing architectural study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he gained his B.S. in Architecture in 1904. Although Gill’s career was firmly established in Philadelphia, by the 1920s he was operating from an office in Camden, NJ, and was a member and president of the Camden Society of Architects. He also belonged to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the New Jersey Society of Architects, and the West Jersey Society of Architects.
Arthur Gill married Margaret Rudy on March 31, 1903. The marriage would produce two children, Malcolm and Robert. Sadly, Malcolm Gill would die of natural causes while serving with America’s armed forces on June 13, 1944. The 1923 Camden City Directory shows him living at 217 Pearl Street. The homes in this block were taken late in 1923 or early in 1924 to make way for the Delaware River Bridge, known today as the Ben Franklin Bridge. Arthur B. Gill subsequently purchased a home at 310 State Street.
Gill began his career as a draftsman in the office of Seymour and Paul Davis, with whom he remained from 1904 to 1907. From there he went to the offices of H. L. Reinhold (1907–1908), Newman & Harris (1908–1911), and the Philadelphia Board of Education (1911–1914). He also established a partnership with S. H. Bailey Mercer, a builder, in 1908 and worked with him under the title Gill & Mercer until 1911. After several years of independent practice following 1911, Gill and Milton Roy Sheen, another contractor, founded the short-lived Sheen & Gill.
By 1922 Gill had disappeared from the Philadelphia city directories and further projects reported for him by the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide indicate an office at 519 Market Street in Camden, NJ. Among Arthur Gill’s projects were a private home at Tavistock, and the Westfield Acres public housing project.
Arthur B. Gill died at his State Street home on Monday, December 28, 1953. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Pennsauken NJ.
Security Chapter Will Hold Session
Camden Courier-Post —
Interprofessional Association to Hold First Meeting Here Thursday Night
Dr. Martin Steinberg, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Mary Foley Grossman, teacher and economist, will be the principal speakers at the first meeting of the Camden Chapter of the Interprofessional Association, Thursday night, at the Labor Temple, 538 Broadway.
Florence Frisch Fox, of 1267 Magnolia Avenue, chairman pro tem of the Camden chapter, said the association is a national organization with chapters functioning in all the larger cities of the United States, and with national headquarters in New York.
“Our purpose,” the chairman said, “is social security. Through co-operation in professional groups, our object is to help solve this problem of insecurity which looms greater and darker than ever before.”
Miss Mary Van Kleeck, noted economist, is national chairman of the association. Francis F. Kane, recipient of the 1935 Bok Award, is chairman of the Philadelphia chapter.
Various representatives of the professions in Camden County will attend the first meeting of the Camden chapter, including Dr. Thomas K. Lewis, Dr. G. Russell Atkinson and Arthur B. Gill, it was announced.
North Camden – May 2004
312 & 310 State Street
310 State Street as seen from the middle of the 200 block
Arthur Gill Dies, Widely Known as Architect Here
Camden Courier-Post —
Arthur B. Gill, 75, widely known architect, died Monday in his home, 310 State st.
He was in business in Camden for 30 years and had his own offices at 111 N. 4th st. He had been active in business until his last illness.
He graduated from Penn State College with a bachelor’s degree and received an architectural degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gill was an athlete and was a member of the two-mile relay team in 1902 while at the University of Pennsylvania. The team established what then was a world record for the distance. He was one of the best half milers of his generation.
He was a tennis enthusiast and competed until he was 60. He was a member of the West Jersey Society of Architects, and was a member of Trimble Lodge 117, FAM, and the Centenary Tabernacle Methodist Church.
Surviving are his widow, the former Margaret Rudy, with whom he celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on March 31; a son, Robert P., 35A, Wayne Gardens, Collingswood, and a grandson.
Services will be private Thursday at 1 p. m. in the funeral home of Charles W. Huskey, 123 Cooper st., where friends may call tonight. Burial will be private in Arlington Cemetery, Pennsauken.