Summit Street, also known as Summit Avenue, in North Camden runs for one block, from 1027 Penn Street and 1030 Linden Street, between North 10th and North 11th Streets, near the site of the old Haddon Bindery. When the 1920 City Directory was compiled, there were 22 homes on Summit Street. By 1947 only three buildings were still standing. Things remained this way for several decades until new homes were built on Summit and Chester Streets in the 1990s.
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Summit Street Map — 2010
Summit Street — North Camden, 2010.
300 Block of Summit Street
300 Block of Summit Street — Occupants
City directory records, 1902–1955.
309 Summit Street
309 Summit Street — 300 Block of Summit Street — Occupants
County Physician James and Coroner Litchfield, in Camden yesterday, held a post-mortem view of the body of James Brown, colored, who died at the Cooper Hospital Tuesday night as the result of being struck on the head with some blunt instrument. Death was due to hemorrhage of the brain. An inquest will be held to-morrow morning.
Brown, who was 41 years old and who lived at 337 Summit street, is believed to have received the fatal blow during an altercation with a woman. She has not yet been located by the police.
Jailed as an Accessory
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Philadelphia Suspected of Knowing Something About Camden Murder
Randolph Whittler, colored, who was arrested in Philadelphia and taken to Camden by Detective Cherry, was committed to the county jail by Justice Hellings yesterday on the charge of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of James Brown, colored, of 337 Summit street, Camden, election day.
The authorities declare that Whittler is the lawful husband of a woman who is charged with having cut Brown with a knife, from the effects of which he died. It is also claimed that soon after the cutting the woman fled to Whittler’s home in Philadelphia and that he harbored her and aided her to escape. She has not yet been arrested.
Coal-Throwing Thieves Get 3 Months in Jail
Camden Courier-Post —
Accused of throwing coal at a railroad detective who says he caught them taking two bags of coal from a coal car at Tenth and Bulson streets, two youths were sent to jail for three months yesterday by Police Judge Garfield Pancoast.
They are Lucius Robinson, 18, of 903 Ferry avenue, and Daniel Paulk, 17, of 1708 South Tenth street. Their accuser was Eugene Pavon, of the Reading Railroad. They said they were merely walking across the tracks. The police said both have been arrested before on coal stealing charges.
Samuel Gillard, 18, of 310 Summit street, went to jail for 30 days in default of a $25 fine on a charge of stealing a bag of coal from the American Ice Company, Twelfth and Federal streets. John Rusch, 1319 Princess Avenue, manager of the plant, said he captured Gillard.
George Kennedy Remembers Summit Street
My mother, 3 siblings and I moved to Camden in February 1954: 312 Summit Street in North Camden, a small street sandwiched between 10th and 11th Penn Street. Went to the old Clara S. Burrough Jr. High on Haddon Avenue. In 1955, we moved to 1191½ Penn Street, again in North Camden, directly behind Admiral Wilson Blvd.
Summit Street reminded me of photos I had seen of Hiroshima after the bomb. There were no more than 3 or 4 houses. Ours was the only one with an indoor facility. The rest of the street was rubble (bricks) from homes that had been demolished, a few cars parked but the scene was bleak. We were delighted to move.
— George Kennedy, April 2010
2 Opponents Slashed in North Camden Fight
Camden Courier-Post – circa 1932
Two colored men were under arrest last night following a cutting affray in North Camden. Each charges the other with atrocious assault and battery.
They are Herman Langston, of 332 Summit Street, near whose home the brawl occurred, and Emory B. Ball, 30, of 1028 Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Langston was treated at Cooper Hospital for cuts on the head and back. Ball was cut on the hand.
House of Murder Haunted
Illinois State Journal —
Negroes Say Strange Occurrences Happen Nightly In Building.
Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 26.—Negroes in the vicinity of Eleventh and Penn streets, Camden, are firmly convinced the house at 337 Summit street, in which James Brown was recently stabbed to death, is haunted. After dark not a negro will pass the dwelling.
Some have grown so timid they have left the neighborhood, seeking places where the midnight hours are undisturbed by shrieks and all manner of outlandish noises.
Since Brown met his death, for which Ida Burton was indicted last Friday, the colored residents avow there are nocturnal seances in the diningroom of the old building.
Every night, the shivering neighbors declare, they hear such sounds as the overturning of chairs and tables and the shrieks and groans of some one apparently in a death struggle. This interesting performance, they say, is concluded with a dull thud as though a body fell heavily to the floor.
Thus far no one has had the temerity to rent the place, and it has been vacant since election night, when Brown met his death.
