Bergen Avenue

Bergen Avenue is in Camden’s Cramer Hill section. It is east of North 32nd Street, and runs north from Cleveland Avenue, crossing Hayes Avenue and River Road, and across Harrison Avenue towards the Delaware River, ending at Farragut Avenue.

Bergen Avenue is most likely named for one of two brothers, Martin V. Bergen or Christopher A. Bergen, who were prominent in legal and civic circles in Camden in the late 1800s. The C.A. Bergen School in South Camden was named for Christopher Bergen.

Many single family homes were built on Bergen Avenue prior to 1924. In the late 1940s or early 1950s a fairly large number of brick row houses were built in the 900, 1000, and 1100 blocks.

Tragedy has struck the 900 block of Bergen Avenue on at least three occasions—in the 1950s when young Eddie Marren drowned in a boating accident, in 1963 when his sister and three other young people were killed in a car accident, and in 2005 when three small children died after accidentally locking themselves in the trunk of a car parked in the yard of 957 Bergen Avenue.

Related: Hugh Gray & Family — 820 Bergen Avenue, 1970. William D. Moore — 859 Bergen Avenue, 1939.

Related: The Cruz Children — 957 Bergen Avenue, 2005. George J. Phillips Jr. — 963 Bergen Avenue, 1930s–1980.

I was born in 1939 and was taken home from Cooper Hospital to 963 Bergen Avenue. I resided there until 1957, when I enlisted in the U. S. Air Force. The Bergen Avenue page shows no building until 1943. Also, in the picture for 957 to 963, the first house next to the green monster (the old Louis Schwartz furniture store), one can see a wrought iron corner post holding up the porch roof. My dad, George Phillips, installed that when I was about 8 or 9. He had replaced the wooden porch with a concrete one he also built by himself. George was a plumber. That front porch had a new bathtub sitting on it for many years. He got it surplus from some job he did and always intended to replace our old cast iron one with it.

Don Phillips
March 20, 2013

Related: Marion W. Piper — 1100 Bergen Avenue, 1932. Edgar S. Boulton — 1133 Bergen Avenue, 1956. Six Begin Fire ‘Basic’ — 1153 Bergen Avenue, 1969.

Growing up in Camden was a wonderful experience for me. We had the Cramer Hill Boys’ Club to provide us with organized sports. The city summer recreational activities at von Nieda Park helped keep us out of trouble too. We could walk anywhere in Camden and no one would bother us. My sister, brother and I all attended H.C. Sharp School as did the children of all of our neighbors (except Mrs. Coyle).

My neighbors, as closely as I can remember them, were as follows: 1154: Bill and Addie Blessing; 1156: Mr. and Mrs. Paul Delfing and family; 1158: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thompson and Family; 1160: Mrs. Coyle; 1164: Mr. and Mrs. Roy Devine and Family. The Murtaugh’s lived across the street from us.

Adam Drapczuk Jr.
March 2009

We moved to Bergen “Avenue” in 1953. We lived at 1021 Bergen Avenue which is still there. There used to be a red house next to the lot which was Engle’s Bar. The lot belonged to the bar. My mom and dad bought this, their first house after renting the home of my dad’s brother and his wife on Fairview Street in Morgan Village. My dad’s brother was career Navy and was a Master Chief who was sent to Viet Nam in 1953 as part of the advisors which were being sent by our government. This is the first place that my aunt couldn’t go and she and her son lived in the house on Fairview Street, and my mom and dad and my sister and I moved to Bergen Avenue.

We lived across the street from the Clark family. They were at 1020 Bergen. They were Mary and Ed and their kids were Mary, Terry, Sandy, Pam, and a few years later, Ed. Next to them was the William Deal family. Denny Deal was a Camden fireman. On the other side of the Clark family was the Straub family. Mr. and Mrs. Straub were older as I remember them. They had quite a few grown children, two of which worked as steel workers on the Walt Whitman Bridge. The younger son was killed from a fall off the bridge when they were building it.

On the corner of Bergen Avenue on the north east side was the little shoe store that was run by the woman who also lived upstairs. School shoes were always bought there. One pair for school and one pair for church. Opposite the shoe store was Louie’s furniture store. It was a glass front store, and Louie was always standing out front. I always wondered how he managed to stay in business when there was never anyone in the store. But he always had a suit and tie on and was standing there watching the traffic on River Road. I remember as a child the suitcase factory that burned one summer night. It was opposite Engle’s Bar and parking lot. It went up in a ball of flames.

I remember riding our bikes and jumping rope until the sun went down. So many kids to play with and no one ever argued and rarely did we get into trouble. I also remember the house next to my parents house had an apartment upstairs where a young family lived. There was a son and a daughter. The man and his father who owned that house lived downstairs. They kept to themselves and as kids we were afraid of them because they were really strange. It was also a tragedy that the son, Eddie Marren died by drowning when we were in elementary school and then his sister Ellen was one of the group of kids who died when we were in junior high from the accident when the car that all of the kids had piled into went off the road and over an overpass onto high tension wires in Atco. I think only two kids lived out of about 8–9.

Bergen Avenue was really a quiet street. The Murtaughs lived in the 1100 and the Namms lived in the 1200 block. I can remember Louie Namm walking by our house in the evening coming from the Jewish classes that he took in the evenings, and later Carol and her younger sister. I remember Sandy Lyndsey and her family, and Terry Bruccollere who lived in the row houses up the street. We all walked to school together to Sharp School and later to Vets and Wilson. Those were the good old days when you could actually walk the streets of Cramer Hill without fear.

I can remember going to Frank & Tom’s which was the grocery store on the corner of River Rd, and 32nd street. It changed names so many times while I was growing up. The drug store at 32nd and River Road where Unruh did his infamous tragic act of killing everyone. My mother-in-law had just walked past that corner with my husband in a stroller shortly before the killing spree took place.

There was a Cleaner and Al’s Barber Shop with the infamous pony that all the kids used to sit on while getting their haircuts. Next to the barber shop was the sub shop that I used to walk by on my way home from school at lunch time. My favorite smell in the whole world. I have never tasted a sub quite like that place. Then of course there was Pelligrino’s beauty parlor next to the cleaner. Thinking back on this, it was so convenient to have everything so close. We would catch a bus right at the corner of 33rd and River (the 1280) or the #9 to Philly. We would also meet at the corner of Bergen and River on Friday nights to go skating in Fairview. The bus would come by and pick us up and bring us back at 10. God I miss those days.

Dolores Arensberg Campbell
July 27, 2006

Ok, so my parents bought 1021 Bergen from the Kennedy family in 1953. My parents lived in the white house, one house from Engles Lot. There was a red house that is gone between my parents house and that lot. My dad passed away in 1982 and my mom eventually sold the property in 1988. My mom and dad were Tom and Helen Campbell.

The William Deals lived in Camden across from my parents until the late 1980s as well.

I also remember there being a suitcase factory on the corner of Bergen Avenue and River road next to Swartz’s Furniture Store (across Bergen). It burned down in the early 1950s. There was also Al’s Barber Shop a few doors up from the furniture store on River Road, and there was Harry’s sub shop next to the barber shop. Howard Unruh actually shot a child sitting on the horse in the barber Shop. Then there was the drug store on the corner of 32nd Street and River Road. The pharmacist was such a grouch!! There was a small grocery store across 32nd Street that was owned by a Jewish family. It later became a laundromat. Frank and Tom’s was the larger grocery store across River Road. They had the best lunch meat!!! The small sub shop in between Frank and Tom’s and the Bar…and there was Lucy’s Hair Salon and next to that the dry cleaner all on the side of River Road as Al’s Barber Shop. We had so much in such a small area!

As kids we used to wait on the corner on Friday night to catch the bus to the skating rink in Fairview! That was the highlight of our lives back then! And of course when we were older we could walk to the Arlo in East Camden! No wonder we all were so skinny! We walked everywhere! We actually walked to Wilson from Cramer Hill over the railroad tracks behind Campbell Soup! Sometimes, under the trains…it’s a wonder we are still alive!

Then there was Carmello’s on the corner of Beideman and River Road. This woman hated kids! She had the best choice of soda and ice cream, but the kids tormented her! There was also Dead Man’s hill on 33rd Street. Do you know why it was called that? I’ve never found the answer to that one…? Oh, the Bar on River Road across from Lucy’s and Swartz’s was Engles. Frankie Engle used to throw pears at everyone and no one would do anything about him because his dad owned the bar and everyone was afraid of him…funny now that I think about it.

Joe Arensberg lived on the 1000 block of 32nd Street. He is much older than my husband. He raised his family there until moving to Maple Shade. John Long and family lived directly behind my parents. Their address would have been 1024 32nd Street. The Marini’s lived directly behind the grocery store on River Road and 32nd Street in the 1000 block. The Huhn’s lived on the 1000 block of 33rd Street directly across from my parents home.

My parents lived in the white house, 1021 Bergen, one house from Engles Lot. There was a red house that is gone between my parents house and that lot. Going up Bergen toward the river, the next house on the same side was where Ellen Marren lived, then there was a driveway that circles around behind the row houses on the same side of the street. Paul Delfing later lived in that apartment. He was also a fireman. Then the row houses started and William Hummel lived in the second house of the red brick row houses.

Other friends—Rennes Allenbach (former Camden Chief of Police Bob Allebach’s younger sister. We are still best friends); Ginger (Virginia) Dowhy, cousin to the Dowhy firemen clan, Ray Chintal who lived on River Road near 22nd Street, next to Ginger; Becky Sooy Murtaugh who is married to John, Ed Murtaugh’s brother; Tara Angelastro Sooy, the sister of Becky Murtaugh; and Marianne Shinn Charlton, who lived on the 800 block of 32nd Street. Her mom was the crossing guard for the Harry C. Sharp School. Also Bruce Bauer, who had an Aunt, Mrs. Lewes, who taught 5th grade at Sharp School.

Dolores Arensberg Campbell
August 2009