Chambers Avenue

Chambers Avenue runs from Benson Street south to Berkley Street. There were 44 houses built on the street, which were erected sometime after 1890. There are no stores, although one home housed a funeral parlor for many years. The story behind the name of Chambers Avenue is not known to this author as of this writing.

I visited my grandmother, Emma E. Hyland, many times while she resided at 409 Chambers Avenue. She moved there from the family home on Haddon Avenue after losing her husband, John T. Hyland, in France in World War I. In about 1934 four of my brothers and sisters and I temporarily moved to the Chambers Avenue home while the sixth of the Hyland children was recovering from scarlet fever. He had remained with my parents at their home on Belleview Avenue in Camden during the six week quarantine period. Each morning the rest of us boarded a Number 4 Public Service bus at Haddon Avenue and Benson Street to travel to the Parkside School on Wildwood and Kenwood Avenues.

We loved the home on Chambers Avenue and the quarantine was a great adventure for us, especially since my grandmother, who was quite active in public life, had many distinguished visitors while we were there. Years later, when I had also entered public life, some of these individuals and I became good friends.

Bill Hyland
October 12, 2005

MRS. EVELYN C. CONNELLY

Mrs. Evelyn C. Connelly, 68, of 420 Chambers avenue, widow of a former Camden potter, died yesterday after a long illness at the Cooper Hospital.

Mrs. Connelly had been a resident of Camden for 36 years. She was the widow of Martin J. Connelly, who died in 1910. Mrs. Connelly was a member of Camp No. 10, P. O. of A. She is survived by two sons, Edwin J. and William P. Connelly; a daughter, Mrs. Kathryn Noble, of Merchantville, and two sisters, Mrs. Harry Hankins, of Camden, and Mrs. John Votta, of Trenton.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. tomorrow at 60 South Twenty-seventh street. Burial will be in Harleigh cemetery.

Written by LUCAS K. MURRAY, Courier-Post Staff

CAMDEN — For nearly six years, Camden County Freeholder Scot McCray has worked on making his Cooper Lanning house a home.

Much of that work went up in flames Friday after a fire in a vacant dwelling next door spread to his three-story, 113-year-old row home.

Firefighters were called to the 400 block of Chambers Avenue, a tree-lined cobblestone street where many of the homes have their original slate roofs, around 12:45 a.m. Initial radio reports indicated heavy fire was coming from the third floor of the home next to McCray’s.

“This house was boarded up, waiting to be worked on,” McCray said. “It’s owned by the St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society. They were ready to fix it up and had already (gutted) it on the inside.”

Within minutes of arrival, Camden’s firefighters called for assistance from Collingswood and Gloucester City, fearing the fire could spread to other homes. Crews worked for more than an hour to bring the blaze under control.

At one point, the rear of the home in which the fire started collapsed, sending bricks tumbling into the small backyards of the properties. Spray from a hose smashed a window of an adjacent home. An older female resident was frightened, but unhurt.

Neighbors reported to police that a woman had been seen running from the burning building over toward Cooper University Hospital to summon help.

She was taken into custody for questioning around 10 a.m. after a Camden officer saw her return to the vacant residence.

A man she was seen with remains at large.

One firefighter from Collingswood was injured and was treated and released at Cooper, city officials said. No civilians were reported hurt.

“My oldest son is pretty shook up, my youngest is too young to know what’s going on,” McCray said.

In total, three buildings were damaged in the fire.

This is the second fire in the neighborhood in two weeks. On May 31, a midmorning fire destroyed another three-story dwelling on the 400 block of Broadway across from the new Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

In that fire, squatters are said to have been active in the building prior to its destruction.

A constant wave of supporters visited the McCray home Friday morning ranging from fellow politicians to fellow Cooper Lanning residents. Many of them had been on the lookout for the individuals who fled from the burning home.

Camden’s fire department was called back to the scene twice Friday for reports that what was left of the shared roof was smoldering.

Camy Trinidad, executive director of the Camden County Chapter of the American Red Cross, said in addition to the McCrays, a man who lived in an apartment in an adjoining unit was displaced and provided with “client assistance cards.”