Adams Avenue

Adams Avenue, which is in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, was named after President John Quincy Adams. That he was named for John Quincy instead of John Adams is a pretty easy deduction, given that many of the other streets in the immediate vicinity were named after Presidents of the same era—Van Buren, Polk, Pierce, Harrison, and Tyler, to be precise.

Adams Avenue starts at the foot of North 28th Street, near where the old Noecker, Rickenbach and Ake shipyard once stood, and runs northeast across 29th Street before ending at the site of the former Tucker shipyard.

On February 16th, 1941 at 6:30 A.M., a passing milkman turned in the alarm for an explosion and fire in an occupied dwelling at 28th Street and Adams Avenue, Cramer Hill. A father and son were killed in this fire resulting from a faulty oil burner, while a second son was critically burned but survived.

To the Editor:

Sir—As a citizen of Camden, I plead with you to encourage the building of new schools in Camden. As you probably know, many of these schools are in deplorable condition, especially in the Third and Fourth wards and are fire traps, if ever there were any. If there is not something done to replace these firetraps, we are going to have a repetition of what took place in Ontario the other day where so many innocent children were burned to death. Not more than 10 percent of the schools in Camden are fit to hold children; and, your paper, being the mouthpiece of Camden county should absolutely make steps forward for the encouragement of building new schools.

Trusting that you will do what you can for this cause, I am

Samuel Church, 2820 Adams Avenue

This picture is looking east on North 29th Street towards Buren Avenue, in the 1950s. Left side, 1512—renters, 1510—Old Man Frye. Our house with white siding at 2901 Adams Avenue; 1356—the Shlams, 1354—the Kerbaughs. This was a twin, the two houses joined together. Last on left is 1348 North 29th Street, I don’t know who lived there. The last cross street is Buren Avenue. The big house on the corner of North 29th and Buren, upper right in this picture, is 2904 Buren Avenue, the Hawk family.

— Patsy O’Brien Maggiulli, January 2008

I have lived in Cramer Hill since 1943. We first lived on Harrison Avenue. Then we had to move, because someone bought our rented house. We moved to 2901 Adams Avenue in 1947. Here is a picture of our house. It was not a very nice house. It was a summer house when the Delaware River was clean enough to go swimming in, but it was the only one available at the time. My Pop fixed it up, had it shingled in white. My Father was William C. O’Brien, mother Thelma, my name is Patsy, brother Bill, and brother Jim. I lived there till I got married in 1959. My family still lives in South Jersey. My father passed away in 1997. My Mom and brothers are still living. I have a lot of happy memories living on Adams Avenue. The streets weren’t paved. A great place for kids to play. We went to Sharp School.

This is my Mom, Thelma O’Brien, in the back yard. The Dickerson’s house and ours were attached. We bought their side, and Pop tore through to make it bigger. As you can see it was a real mess. Pop did all the work himself. Us kids helped out as much as we could. As a result us kids knew how to handle tools. We’ve become quite handy, because Pop taught us.

— Patsy O’Brien Maggiulli

We, the Larsons—Joseph, Melva and Joseph—lived at 2918 Adams Ave from 1960–1964. It was what was known at the time as a “shotgun house” meaning a long narrow home, one in which you could open the front and back doors and fire a shotgun straight through it.

Directly across from us was the Del-Kirk Spiritualist Camp where my nana—Ida Shlam—would go to “talk to the spooks.” Unfortunately I don’t know the address but it was the last building on that side of the street before the river at that time.

Camden, N.J. — December 14, 2008 — A man was shot and killed outside a Camden bar overnight.

It happened in the parking lot of the Waterview Inn on the 2900 block of Adams Avenue.

Police say a man in his 30s was shot in the neck while sitting inside a car.

Investigators are trying to determine the victim’s identity, and a motive for the shooting.

Camden — A 30-year-old Camden man was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 11 years in prison for killing a man in 2008.

Jamie Martin Centeno, of the 1100 block of N. 28th Street, was sentenced to the equivalent of 86 years, by Superior Court Judge Louise Donaldson.

In February he was convicted of murder, endangering an injured victim, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and being a certain person not permitted to possess a weapon.

Centeno killed Jose Sosa, 30, of the 1200 block of N. 32nd Street in Camden, at the Waterview Inn on the 2900 block of Adams Avenue about 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2008. Centeno and Sosa were both in the bar shortly before the killing, in which Centeno stepped out of the bar briefly, returned and shot Sosa.

Sosa allegedly committed an assault against Centeno’s brother in 2004, which led to a long-standing rivalry between the two men, said Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah during the trial.