John H. Heaton
JOHN H. HEATON was born around 1878 to Clayton C. and Anna Heaton. His parents had married in Camden County in 1864, and by 1870 had moved to the Cinnaminson and Palmyra area in neighboring Burlington County. Clayton C. Heaton supported his family which included three children older than John in a variety of jobs. The family was living in Cinnaminson in 1870, Clayton Heaton then employed as a store clerk, and in Palmyra in 1880, when he was working as a farm laborer. In the mid 1880s Clayton Heaton, having found work as a salesman in Philadelphia, brought his family to Camden. The 1887–1888 City Directory shows the Heatons at 69 State Street, which later became Kelly’s Bar before being razed in the 1970s. The family relocated to 319 North Front Street in 1888, and was there as late as 1891.
John Heaton grew up and followed a career in sales. He married at the age of 18. Already a prominent businessman by 1912, he was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Camden. His business, the John H. Heaton Piano Company, was then located at 21 Broadway.
At the time of the 1920 Census, John Heaton, with his wife Eda owned a home at 423 North 4th Street, between Cole and Pearl Streets. The John Heaton family also included a 10 year old daughter, named Eda after her mother. By this time John H. Heaton had moved his piano business to 528 Market Street in Camden. In the early 1920s James J. Scott purchased two pianos from John H. Heaton for use at the new Walt Whitman Hotel, at Broadway and Cooper Street.
The property at 528 Market Street was one of many acquired by the City of Camden in the very late 1920s for the site of the new City Hall. By April of 1930 John H. Heaton and family had moved to Moorestown NJ, where they bought a home at 112 Colonial Ridge, the corner of Camden Avenue and Colonial Ridge, where he was still living as late as 1936. As the 1936 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory, however, has no listing for the piano business in Camden, it appears that he moved his business to Moorestown.
1913 Camden City Directory Buyer's Guide Advertisement
1913 Camden City Directory Buyer’s Guide Advertisement
21 Broadway, circa 1930
A View of 21 Broadway from about 1930 — John Heaton had moved his business to 528 Market Street by this time
Camden First
Camden Chamber of Commerce — 1925
Camden First — Camden Chamber of Commerce, 1925
Ten Buildings Ordered Down for Post Office
Camden Morning Post —
Contract Awarded by U. S. for Clearing Site at Fourth and Market
ENDS LENGTHY DELAY ON CAMDEN STRUCTURE
Old Temple Theatre to Be Razed by Winning Bidder From Phila.
Camden’s new $1,100,000 postoffice and Federal building came nearer to realization yesterday with announcement of award of the contract to clear 10 buildings from the site at the northeast corner of Fourth and Market streets.
The successful bidder was the Fidelity Builders, Inc., of Philadelphia, the lowest of 13 bidders, who submitted a figure of $2583, according to the supervising architect of the Treasury Department at Washington.
Under the terms of the contract the buildings on the site must be razed within 90 days after the firm is given notice to proceed with the work. This notice is expected within a few days. A fence is to be built around the site while the buildings are being removed.
Meanwhile Treasury Department architects are proceeding with plans and specifications for the structure itself. As soon as the site is cleared and the plans prepared, bids for erection of the building will be sought by advertisement.
The site extends northward from Market street to Markley place and eastward from Fourth street to include the old Temple building.
Ten buildings to be razed, and their owners are, 401 and 403 Market street, John Stoer; 405 Market street, Louis Katz; 407 Market street, Bennie Gondolf; 409 Market street, City Commissioner T. Yorke Smith and John Rand; the Temple building, 411–413 Market street, owned by John H. Heaton Piano Company; 110 and 112 Fourth street, John Dick; 114 Fourth street, Alice M. Wesley, and 116 Fourth street, Louis Berkowitz.
The new building will have a space of 32,204 square feet and will be three or four stories high.