High Street

High Street runs east from 114 East State Street, parallel to Federal Street to North 26th Street, where it doglegs to the left, and continues to North 30th Street, running parallel to Westfield Avenue. High Street begins again at North 32nd Street, and runs all the way to the border with Pennsauken at North 42nd Street, from where it continues in Pennsauken all the way to Cove Road, ending opposite Arlington and Bethel Cemeteries.

Outside of a few corner stores, most of the buildings on High Street were and are residential. The two great exceptions are the Thomas H. Dudley School between North 23rd and North 24th Streets, and the Henry H. Davis School between North 24th Street and North 36th Street.

From the winter of 1985 on until the present day, however, there has been a great amount of “business” activity, on the corner of North 25th Street and High Street, which has been a notorious drug corner for over 20 years.

Phil Cohen
Monday, April 27, 2020

WATSON—On February 10, 1938, Elizabeth, wife of Charles H. Watson, in her 63rd year. Relatives and friends of the family, also employees of Y. M. C. A. Restaurant are invited to attend the funeral services on Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the funeral home of Gustav Roedel & Son, 804-06 N. 27th St., Camden, N. J. Interment private at Odd Fellows Cemetery, Medford, N. J. Friends may call Sunday evening.

MRS. ELIZABETH WATSON

Funeral services for Mrs. Elizabeth Watson, 63, of 2033 High street, waitress for many years at the Y. M. C. A. Restaurant, who died Thursday, will be held at 2 p. m. today at a funeral home at 804 North Twenty-seventh street. She is survived by her husband, Charles. Burial will be in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Medford.

I. Robert Wilson, of the City Parks Department, fell from a City Parks truck on March 17, 1937. He died from his injuries on April 22, 1937, and was buried at New Camden Cemetery.

My name is Hector Gonzalez. I am the youngest son of Digna Gonzalez. We originally moved to Camden and resided temporarily on Bailey Street and then later to Westminster Avenue at the McGuire Gardens projects. We were poor and my mother was raising 5 children alone. She received her GED and later graduated from Pennsauken Tech with a Registered Nursing degree and began working at Cooper Hospital. Not bad for a woman who also had to learn English! Finally in 1969 my mother moved us to our first house on 2620 High Street. We were the first Hispanic family on the block. We were so proud and happy. I remember the RCA store on the corner of 27th Street and High Street. My mother purchased almost all of our appliances here until they closed down. Around the corner on 27th Street was a mom and pop candy store that we enjoyed for years until the store closed. Across the street from our house was Tony’s Auto. They fixed our car for us whenever it was needed. I played little league baseball around the corner on 26th Street for 12th Ward. We had it made.

At first we were not always accepted. It must have been hard for the neighbors to open their community to this Hispanic family but eventually we were. I remember Mr. Jack (I do not remember his last name), he became a surrogate father to me. He taught me to love baseball and especially the Phillies. I remember Mr. Johnson. He and his wife would allow me to play with their by then grown children’s childhood toys. I remember feeling the trust and always played with these toys respectfully.

My mother raised all of her children and lived in the house until September, 1992. My mother moved out of the house on a Sunday. On Monday a new family moved in. On Tuesday the house next door caught on fire and destroyed both properties. Today, 2620 is an empty lot.

RAHWAY GETS MAN FOR THEFT OF $20

Defendant at Pennsauken Found Guilty by Jury in 3-Year-Old Robbery

James Brody, 22, of 4341 Forty-third Street, Pennsauken Township, yesterday was sentenced to serve an indefinite term in Rahway Reformatory today in Criminal Court.

A jury found him guilty of participation in a $20 robbery three years ago. The jury deliberated for one hour and a half. The state charged that Brody, in company with Harry Schultz, 2162 Berwick Street, and William Dempsey, 2271 Mickle Street, went to the candy store of Mrs. Celia Schulman, 2902 High Street, threatened her with a pistol and took the money on Oct. 23, 1930.

Schultz and Dempsey were subsequently arrested, tried and sentenced to two years each. Brody was indicted and declared a fugitive.

In court yesterday Brody denied that he had made an attempt to evade arrest and said he had been working as a hand on a dredge in the Delaware River. He said if there was a holdup he knew nothing about it for on the day in question he was intoxicated and merely took a ride with the two convicted bandits.

“I was so drunk I don’t remember anything,” he declared. “If there was a holdup, I had nothing to do with it.”

A fatal automobile accident resulted in Brody’s arrest on the holdup charge. On the 28th of last month William Urban, 60, 109 Allen’s Court, a passenger in Brody’s car, was killed when the machine collided with a bus. During the subsequent investigation of the crash, Detective William Lehman remembered that a fugitive warrant had never been served on Brody and placed him under arrest.

Carl Kellman Jr. was murdered on October 13, 1912 in the course of a robbery by Harry Duffield and Frederick “Cowboy Pete” Coursey, who were tried and convicted. Sentenced to 15 and 30 years in prison respectively, they were paroled in 1920.

David Humphries, Camden Fire Fighter, lived at 2925 High Street with his wife Rhoda and son David W. Humphries Jr. in the 1920s–1930s.