Introduction
Herman Z. Cutler
Herman Z. Cutler is best remembered in Camden for the company he founded, Cutler Metal Products Company, which operated at 1021–1025 Line Street into the 1980s.
Herman Cutler was born January 6, 1888 in the town of Ilintsy, in what is now the Ukraine. This town had a relatively large Jewish population at that time, and was known in Yiddish as Linitz. He came to America in 1906.
By 1915 Herman Z. Cutler owned a business, Camden Auto Radiator, which was located at 505–509 Arch Street. He then lived in the next block at 412 Arch Street. Camden Auto Radiator was one of several auto repair establishments that operated on and just off of Arch Street in the 1920s and 1930s. Other shops included George’s Auto Service and the Cooperson Brothers auto body shop.
The 1920 Census shows Herman and Yetta Cutler living in Camden’s Parkside neighborhood, at 1240 Princess Avenue with their children Dorothy, Harry, and Abraham. Also living with the Cutler family was a cousin, Abe Ostroff, who worked as an auto mechanic. Within a few years two daughters would come, Sarah and Anna. During the 1920s the family had moved to 1147 Langham Avenue. They lived a few doors away from Robert Rosengarten, who co-owned a typewriter and business machine business in Camden.
Herman Z. Cutler was involved in the fundraising drive that culminated in the building of the Walt Whitman Hotel at Broadway and Cooper streets in 1925.
Herman Cutler was also able to bring his parents to America from Soviet Russia, in 1929. This was no mean feat, both in getting them out of Russia and into America. The Cutler family was still in Parkside in April of 1930, at 1147 Langham Avenue.
The 501 block of Arch Street was razed around 1930 during the construction of City Hall to make way for Roosevelt Plaza Park. The Parkade Building was erected on the site in the 1950s.
When the 1947 City Directory for Camden was compiled, Herman Z. Cutler was living in a large house at 1501 Baird Boulevard in Parkside. He was active in the affairs of Congregation Beth El, and served as president of the synagogue in 1946 and 1947. Many prominent Camden citizens lived on this and the 1400 blocks, which lie between Kaighn Avenue and Park Boulevard. Herman Z. Cutler’s next door neighbor was Jacob Naden. During the 1950s, many families left Camden for the suburbs. No exception, Herman Z. Cutler moved to 266 Bewley Road in Haddon Heights NJ.
On March 25th of 1955, funeral services were conducted in the main sanctuary of Congregation Beth El for past president Herman Z. Cutler whose years of leadership were inspiring and filled with great accomplishments.
Herman Z. Cutler’s new business, Cutler Metal Products Company, occupied a large building at 1021–1025 Line Street, between the Fleck Plumbing Supply building and Camden’s original Convention Hall, which was destroyed by fire in the early 1950s. Cutler Metal Products remained in operation until 1985, when it folded in the wake of the then-current recession. Cutler Metal Products manufactured a wide variety of metal items. Their main product was the manufacture of diesel fuel tanks and air brake tanks for trucks. The firm also produced metal television cabinets, shower stalls, and bathroom partitions.
The former Cutler Metal Products building, as of January 2006, is occupied by the Alpha III Group and the Exotherm Corporation.
Camden Auto Radiator Repair Co.
Camden Daily Courier —
Cuts Show The CUTLER Radiator—Invented By Herman Z. Cutler
If He Can Invent an Improved Radiator—of course he can repair any ordinary kind
Cutler Will Repair Your Truck Radiators and Get Your Truck Back in Service Quickly
Trucks can’t operate with leaky radiators—burnt out bearings cost too much money. Bring that truck with that leaky radiator to CUTLER and get real work—and get it done quickly.
We Make Fenders and All Sheet Metal Parts for All Makes of Trucks
WE PAINT TRUCKS—WORK GUARANTEED
Camden Auto Radiator Repair Co.
507-09 Arch Street, Camden, N.J.
Herman Z. Cutler, Proprietor
“You Know Cutler’s Good Work”
Herman Z. Cutler Co., Inc.
Camden City Directory — 1922
Herman Z. Cutler Co., Inc.
Automotive Sheet Metal Manufacturing
Specialists in Fenders, Hoods, Radiators
505–511 Arch Street, Camden, N.J.
Phone Bell 1338
Camden Auto Radiator — Advertising Blotter
Silent film star Mary Miles Minter was featured on this advertising blotter. As Miss Minter left the film industry in the wake of the scandal following the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor, this card most likely was produced between 1919 and 1922.
Garage Watchman Foils Whiskey Theft
Camden Courier-Post —
Tells Police of Man With Box; Liquor From Drugstore Found
A second attempt within ten days by thieves to steal whisky valued at several thousands of dollars from the drug store of George Beringer, Fifth and Federal streets, was frustrated over the week-end by the alertness of a night attendant at a garage at Fifth and Arch streets.
It was about 2 o’clock Sunday morning when James Robertson, night attendant at the garage of Herman Z. Cutler, Fifth and Arch streets, saw a man carrying a box up an alley almost directly opposite the garage. Robertson, suspicious, telephoned police headquarters at city hall.
“Come to Fifth and Arch streets right away,” Robertson urged the police sergeant on duty. “A man is acting suspiciously in this neighborhood. He looks like a thief.”
Policemen Joslin, Cattel, Reese, Jones, Petit and Carroll were dispatched to the scene. When they arrived, the mysterious stranger sighted by Robertson had disappeared.
Further search proving unavailing, the police sought the box the man had carried into the alleyway. They found it in the establishment at 503 Federal street, occupied by a washing machine company. The thief had entered the place by forcing a side window, and left the box, a case of whisky, inside.
Further investigation revealed that the thief and possible accomplices had entered the drug establishment by climbing a shed in the rear to the second floor. They then lifted themselves to the third floor. There they broke open a shutter on one of the windows and entered. Going to the cellar, the thieves broke open a closet where the whisky was stored. They apparently aimed to remove one case of liquor at a time.
Ten days ago both the Beringer establishment and the washing machine firm’s headquarters adjoining were broken into and robbed.
Normal Middleton, 308 Penn street, manager of the place next to the Beringer store, said nothing was stolen from there in the weekend robbery. A check-up is being made by Beringer employees today to determine what was taken at that establishment.
47 More Men Join League to Aid Baird
Camden Courier-Post —
Professional and Business Leaders Back Camden Man for Governor
Forty-seven more prominent professional and business men yesterday joined the Baird-for-Governor Business Men’s League and pledged themselves to work actively in interest of David Baird Jr., for governor, and add special impetus to his campaign.
The league was organized this week at an enthusiastic meeting of 18 outstanding Baird supporters in professional and business life at the Camden Club, 315 Cooper Street. The league membership is open only to business, professional and industrial leaders who are not holding public office and who are not politicians.
The latest enrollments among community leaders pledging themselves to devote themselves to the Baird cause are the following:
F. Morse Archer, president of the First Camden National Bank; Clinton L. Bardo, president of the New York Shipbuilding Company and of the New Jersey Taxpayers’ Association; George C. Baker, of the Baker-Flick Company; Watson Shallcross, president of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce; Howard J. Dudley, Broadway merchant; Thomas E. French, prominent attorney; J. David Stern, publisher of the Courier-Post newspapers and of the Philadelphia Record; Wellington K. Barto, of the West Jersey Trust Company; Dr. Joseph Roberts, Cooper Hospital; William Clement, of the Clement Coverall Paint Company; Robert Wright, of the Haddonfield National Bank; Arthur J. Podmore, of the Camden Pottery Company; Nathan Leopold, Haddonfield druggist; Dr. J. Edgar Howard, of Haddonfield.
Dr. Alfred N. Elwell, of this city; Edward Preisendanz, Clarence Peters, N. Franks, of Franks & Sweeney; U. G. Peters, Ralph D. Baker, prominent real estate man; Archibald Dingo, George Bachman, Sr., and George Bachman, Jr., Dr. O. W. Saunders, Henry Cooperson, Leon Cooperson, Herman Z. Cutler, Charles Bauman, Harry Rose, George Austermuhl, Walter Gulick, Albert Voeglin, Howard Fearn, John A. Schlorer, Ernest L. Bartelt.
William S. Casselman, George M. Carr, J. Price Myers, Carl R. Evered, former president of the Camden County Real Estate Board; Francis B. Wallen, former president of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce; William H. Alff, Edmund J. Alff, Harry Pelouze, Walter Campbell, Dr. Thomas R. Bunting, Joseph F. Kobus and Henry E. Kobus.
Enrollments, it was announced, may be made through the following committee of the league:
Ludwig A. Kind, Thomas Gordon Coulter, Charles H. Laird, Walter J. Staats, Frank C. Middleton, Jr., Frank J. Hineline, William T. Read, Charles S. Boyer, W. W. Robinson, George R. Pelouze, Paul A. Kind, Dr. Paul A. Mecray, Jerome Hurley, Harry A. Moran, James V. Moran, William J. Strandwitz, former Judge Lewis Starr and Frank C. Norcross.
Ransackers Tour Building on Market St.
Camden Courier-Post —
Cash, Stamps Taken
Burglars took between $30 and $40 cash and 200 three-cent stamps during the night while ransacking office and warehouse space of five firms in a building at 10th and Market sts.
Breaking through connecting doors after scaling a ladder in the rear of 1011 Market st., the thieves invaded Wilkie W. Faust & Sons millwork firm, a storage space of Cutler Metal Products Co., offices of Camden Ink and Color Co., Fit-Well Coat Co. and Asam Bros. Inc., a wallpaper firm. The latter three have entrances at 1001 Market st.
Dets. George Ellis and Marshall Thompson said the petty cash and stamps were taken from Camden Ink and Color where desks and filing cabinets were rifled. John Erickson, 5754 Irving ave., Pennsauken, owner, fixed the loss.
Entrance there was through the storage area of the Cutler firm where a broken glass in a door apparently cut someone. Blood was spattered on the door and floor.
The investigators said a ladder at the rear of the building permitted the thieves to force a second-floor window of the Faust firm. But Wilkie W. Faust Jr., of Wynnecote, Pa., said nothing appeared to be missing. He was called by John Gosik, a special watchman, who notified police when he discovered the entry at 4 a.m.
Joseph Allman, 1250 Stirling st., Philadelphia, manager of the coat firm, told detectives he found nothing missing.
At the wallpaper office, Andrew Oliver, 615 Graymar rd., Moorestown, said desks and cabinets were ransacked but nothing was missing.
The Cutler Metal Products Building
Named: 1021, 1025 Line Street, Camden, and December 30, 2005.
World War I Draft Card
Herman Z. Cutler — World War I Draft Registration Card
Tribute from Dr. Hank Z. Cutler
Thank you for holding the memories of Line Street for me. I’m named after my grandfather, Herman Z. Cutler, founder of Cutler Metal Products at 1025 Line Street. I remember when the main factory on Line Street didn’t have every window broken like it does now. My father used to tell me about a freight train that delivered materials into a railroad siding into the factory in the 40’s and 50’s. When I worked there for two summers, the tracks were still visible coming from the intersection of Haddon and Line. I remember the food establishment at the three way corner there almost directly across from Fleck’s front door. Good memories.
Cutler Metal folded in 1985 after a major recession in the trucking industry. By the way, Cutler Metal Products made the body for the first Willy’s army jeep that is or was on display at the Smithsonian (supposedly). Cutler Metal also made TV cabinets (metal), shower stalls, and bathroom partitions in addition to their main products, diesel fuel tanks for tractor trailers. They also had a line of air brake tanks for trucks.
Again, thank you for keeping the memories alive for me and in one place.
Dr. Hank Z. Cutler, DMD
January 2010