Master Street

MASTER STREET was originally called Taylor street and first appeared in Camden City Directories in 1878. By 1887 the street had been rechristened with its current name. Master Street runs between South 6th Street, I-676, and South 7th Streets from 648 Van Hook Street south, crossing Central Avenue, Ferry Avenue, Viola Street, Jefferson Avenue, and Chelton Avenue, to the railroad tracks along Bulson Street, in Camden’s Centerville neighborhood. The street lay in what was for many years Camden’s Eighth Ward. When first laid out, Master Street was to have continued south across Morgan Boulevard to Newton Creek, as shown below in a map published in 1914. Master Street did, in fact, get continued to Morgan Boulevard, however there were no structures with addresses south of Bulson Street in 1947.

There were many families at one time of Eastern European descent, a great percentage being Ukrainian Catholics and Catholics from Slovenia and Croatia, and also many Black families, especially around Chelton Avenue. An all-black public housing project, Chelton Terrace, was built in the 2100 block in 1943; a second, Roosevelt Manor, was built in the following decade along South Seventh Street between Van Hook Street and Ferry Avenue.

Just about every building with an address on Master Street between Van Hook Street and Chelton Avenue were razed over the ensuing years. Much of the old Eighth Ward was declared “blighted” and razed after World War II. Many buildings in the neighborhood were leveled when the interstate highway, I-676, was built.