Elm Street

ELM STREET is another of Camden's “tree” streets, running west from the foot of the Delaware River to 11th Street. It was not laid out until after 1850, as it does not appear in the City Directory published for that year. It does appear in the 1863–1864 Camden City Directory.

Southeast Corner — Camden Foundry Company, 1910s–1970s

Southwest Corner — Riverfront State Prison, 1980s–2006

Northeast Corner — 600 Point Street: William G. Merkle (saloon, 1900s–1910s); Caesar Campana Sr. (Caesar's Grille / Caesar's Sandwich Shop, 1936–1943; Johnny Moore's, 1946–1970)

Northwest Corner — 601 Point Street: Peter Campana Family; Caesar Campana Sr., 1910s–1930s

Northwest Corner — 521 North Front Street: David Payne (Coal, 1880s–1890s)

My Great-grandmother Sophia Pfeiffer Goehringer Breininger was a busy woman, she had 13 children, six of whom were alive in 1910. They all lived in Camden, NJ from the 1890s into the 1910s on Front Street, where my Grandmother Frances Breininger Wilson was born in that home. By 1914 they moved to 120 Elm Street. After Sophia died son George lived there. Son Frederick Goehringer lived at 126 North 26th Street. Frederick was coal dealer and husker, he or Harry had a horse for husking, and rented or had barn on corner of Front Street. Anna Goehringer Travis Mannes and Al her husband Al lived at 109 North 26th Street.

Jean Kuhn
April 21, 2012

Northwest Corner — Imex Corporation (imprinters, 1947)

600 North 3rd Street: Pasquale ‘Pat’ Iarossi

My grandparents lived at 316 Elm Street from 1915 to 1965. Their names were Christian James and Rose Alice Bradel. My mother, Ruth Bradel, and uncle Robert Bradel grew up there. My great-grandmother Elizabeth Whistler lived with them until 1946. Jim Bradel worked for the City of Camden as a mechanic and was a well-known baseball player, winning a championship with the Sewell 9.

James Paulus
November 14, 2019

Of course that reminds me of the Elm Theatre. Place was about three seats wide and five blocks long. Only it seemed that way!!!

John Ciafrani
December 2005

The funeral of Mrs. Hattie Cotton, 49, of 519 Elm Street, who died Thursday, will be held at 2 p. m. Monday at Chambers Avenue and Washington Street. Burial will be private in New Camden Cemetery. Mrs. Cotton was the wife of Frederick Cotton.

William P. Sweeten, 66, of 1245 Washington Street*, was treated at Cooper Hospital yesterday for cuts of the nose and head after he had been found wandering in the vicinity of Fifth and Royden Streets.

Detective Benjamin Simon declared Sweeten told varied incoherent stories of being robbed.

* This is an incorrect address. It does not exist. William Sweeten had lived at 533 Elm Street in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 2 p. m. at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Morris H. Shinn, 539 Elm Street, for their daughter, Mrs. Ida Starliper, who died Tuesday. Burial will be in Arlington Mausoleum. Mrs. Starliper is also survived by her husband, Robert.

Southwest Corner — 538 North 6th Street: John L. Colsey (Dry Goods, 1880s–1890s); Arthur Colsey (1880s–1890s); Samuel Molotsky (1947)

Southeast Corner — Northgate II Apartments, 1950s–2006

628 Elm Street — Hubert Connell desires to arrange an away game Sunday with any first-class club in South Jersey offering a fair guarantee. Call C2431-R. after 9 p. m. — Camden Courier-Post, June 3, 1932

My parents moved to Camden sometime in 1940 which was the year of my birth. We lived at 829 North Sixth Street until the spring of 1948. For a few months we lived at 833 North Sixth Street as there was some delay in the closing on the house my parents bought at 609 Elm Street.

I attended kindergarten at the Cassady School at 3rd and State Streets. Then I went to first and second grade at the Read School at 5th and York. From third through sixth grade I attended Northeast School at 7th and Vine. My younger brother attended Sewell School on the other corner of 7th and Vine. For junior high I went to Veterans Memorial Jr. High in Cramer Hill. After that I attended school in Philadelphia. We moved to Philadelphia in the summer after my junior year in high school.

We were active members of State Street Methodist Church at Sixth and State Streets. It was a beautiful and vibrant church in those days.

My childhood in North Camden was happy and normal. It was a cohesive community and a place where you didn’t worry about your kids when they went outside to play. I would love to see North Camden return to some of its former status as a good place to live and raise a family.

Peggy Spencer
December 23, 2009

My name is Raymond H. Becoskie. I was born and raised in Camden, from 1947 to 1963. Northgate 2 took our house. I lived at 510 North 7th Street. My Grand Parents Hugh & Cathrine Kennedy AKA as the “Camden Window Washer Man” lived at 625 Elm Street and my Aunt Catherine Kennedy lived on Pearl Street between 6th & 7th Streets. My first friends lived on Birch Street. One of my fondest memories was of the corner confectionary store on 7th & Birch known then as “Benny’s.” Never knew his real name. I attended Holy Name, Pyne Point and Woodrow Wilson Schools. I have a picture of me on the same Pony that Albert Bass from 6th Street, that had his picture taken on State Street on your site. Roy & Albert Bass were good friends of mine.

Ray Becoskie
April 29, 2010

Southwest Corner — Northgate II Apartments, 1950s–2006

Herbert Duffield, 44, of 731 Elm Street, employed as an instrument maker at the Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, died yesterday in West Jersey Hospital. He had lived in Camden all his life. He is survived by his widow, Hilda. Funeral services will be held Thursday, p.m., at the funeral home of Joseph H. Murray & Son, 408 Cooper Street. Burial will be in New Camden cemetery.

Southwest Corner — 547 North 8th Street: Litwin’s Market, 1940s–1960s

Southwest Corner — 801 Elm Street: Litwin Brothers’ Market, 1960s–2000s

2 Hurt as Car Collides With Truck; Pedestrian Hit in Merchantville

Three women and two men were injured in automobile accidents over the weekend.

Herbert C. Bloxson, 29, of 123 Linden street, Woodlynne, suffered a fractured left hand, and Gertrude Lutz, 51, of 19 Apple avenue, Bellmawr, received a fractured left arm and face cuts when the car Bloxson was driving was in collision with a truck at Ferry avenue and Charles street. Wilmer Blake, 24, of 716 Walnut street, driver of the truck, was held in $500 bail on a charge of driving with a student’s permit and no licensed driver with him.

Mildred Brown, 28, of 767 Federal street, and William Edwards, 50, of 819 Elm street, suffered cuts when the car in which they were riding struck an abutment of a railroad bridge over Haddon avenue at Line street. Walter H. Holler, 40, of 884 Beideman avenue was the driver, police said.

Mrs. Katherine Sharp, of 70 West Walnut avenue, Merchantville, suffered shock, concussion and bruises when she was struck by an automobile at Gilmore and Walnut avenues, Merchantville, last night. She was admitted to Cooper Hospital. Pennsauken police said William D. Plough, of Newark, Del., drove the car.

The changeable eyesight of chronic offenders doesn’t fool Police Judge Gene R. Mariano one bit.

Two men arrested as drunk and disorderly tried it in police court today but didn’t get to first base. Instead, they got jail terms.

Several weeks ago Wesley Pigwood, 44, of 2390 Farragut Avenue, received a suspended sentence. Yesterday he appeared before Judge Mariano wearing smoked glasses.

“You can’t fool me,” Mariano said. “You were arrested three weeks ago and I gave you a chance. Now you’ll go to jail for 30 days.”

Henry Brownson, 58, of 926 Elm Street, tried the same trick, with reverse English. Wearing glasses, he received a suspended sentence several weeks ago. Yesterday without glasses, he was haled before the court again. Mariano recognized him and sentenced him to 15 days.

Two Youths Escape After Robbing North Camden Grocery Store

A bullet whizzing past them caused several men to cease pursuit of two bandits on Elm street near Ninth Saturday night after the pair had obtained $18.75 in the holdup of a grocery store proprietor at 841 Elm Street.

The victim was Herman Kalmowitz, whose store was broken into and robbed twice recently. Kacmowitz said the two youths, about 17 years old, entered and asked for candy. When he started to get it, one pointed a pistol at him and demanded that he “stick ‘em up.”

While the one “covered” him with the weapon, the other robbed the cash register. As they fled, Kalmowitz ran after them screaming. His alarm attracted the attention of several men passing, who started in pursuit of the bandits east on Elm street. One fired a pistol, however, and the men abandoned the chase.

The youths were about five feet five, Kalmowitz said, and wore gray caps. One had a dark gray overcoat and the other’s was a light gray.

Detectives Joseph Carpani and Sylvester McGrath are investigating.

A purse-snatching and theft of a leather bag from an automobile also were reported to police. The theft of brass and copper fittings also is under investigation with a 17-year-old youth under arrest.

Anna Whiteman, 16, 1606 Pershing Street, reported that two boys, about 15, snatched her purse containing $1 while she walked with a companion, Ada Hans, 16, of 1342 Lansdowne Avenue, on Lansdowne near Norris Street. She pursued the boys but was compelled to give up the chase when she slipped and fell.

A black leather bag was stolen from the car of Frank Grotaski, of Cape May, parked Saturday night at Fifth and Arch Streets. The door of the car was forced open. The empty bag, minus clothes and letters it had contained, was found later by two boys in an alley on South Sixth street, near Stevens.

At liberty, under $500 bail, George Dotterer, 17, of 928 North Twenty-fourth street, is charged with larceny, although the brass and copper fittings he is suspected of stealing have not been identified as to ownership.

Dotterer was arrested by Patrolman Herbert Bott when the youth asked for aid in recovery of the fittings from a junk man to whom he had “sold” the goods. He said the man, George Elliott, of Twenty-fourth and Pierce avenue, kept the fittings and refused to pay him.

Bott presumed after examining the fittings “they could not have been picked up as junk” and arrested the youth in the belief they had been stolen from the Pavonia railroad shops. Detective Sergeant Joseph Tully declared the fittings had not been stolen from the shops. The boy is to face Police Judge Garfield Pancoast this morning.