Camden Streets - Cooper Street

COOPER STREET is one of the oldest streets in Camden, and is named after the Cooper family. William Cooper was one of the first settlers in this part of New Jersey. Camden was known as Cooper's Ferries for many years prior to the city being incorporated in 1828.

The curb line of Cooper Street, from Front Street to the tracks of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad Company, were moved twelve feet towards the center, and the street paved with Belgian blocks in 1881. In 1927 the curb lines were moved back twelve feet from 4th Street to 9th Street. This improvement was completed in September of 1927.

Cooper Street runs from the waterfront east to 9th Street, with a short block of homes and business still standing above 11th Street. Prior to the construction of Interstate Route I-676, Cooper Street ran all the way to 12th Street. Cooper Street was for many years one of the most prestigious addresses in Camden, and many homes of historic significance, due to both the residents and the architects of said homes, were and still are on Cooper Street.

The "beginning of the end" for Cooper Street came in the early 1920s, when three mansions were torn down to make room for the Walt Whitman Hotel. On June 30, 1940 all the homes on the south side of the 900 block were destroyed when the R.M. Hollingshead chemical factory, which occupied most of the block, fronting on 9th and on Market Streets, exploded and burned to the ground.

Little known outside of East Camden is the "other" Cooper Street, which runs between North 19th and East State Street. This short street only has one single family home and a block of 13 row homes.

Do you have an Cooper Street memory or picture. Let me know by e-mail so it can be included here.

Phil Cohen

301 Block of Cooper Street
	302-300 Cooper Street February 7, 2004 House on left: 302 Cooper House on right: 300 Cooper Click on Images to Enlarge
	300 Cooper Street Dr. William A. Davis 1882-1900s
	302-300 Cooper Street February 7, 2004 House on left: 302 Cooper House on right: 300 Cooper Click on Images to Enlarge
	302-312 Cooper Street August 2004 Photo Courtesy of Craig Campbell
	303 Cooper Street February 7, 2004 Dr. Max Ruttenberg 1947 Click on Images to Enlarge
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED Dr. and Mrs. Max Ruttenberg, of 303 Cooper Street, have announced the engagement of Mrs. Ruttenberg's sister, Miss Harriet Blieden, daughter of the late Rabbi and Mrs. Ben jamin Blieden, of Philadelphia, to Max Kahener, of Philadelphia. Miss Blieden is a graduate of South Philadelphia High School for Girls and following attended Temple University. She is vice president of the South Philadelphia Hadassah. Mr. Kahener is a graduate of the Philadelphia Normal School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the law school of Dickinson College.	303 Cooper Street Dr. Max Ruttenberg 1933-1947 Camden Courier-Post June 15, 1933
	305 Cooper Street Dr. H. Genet Taylor & Family 1885-1959 Agnes Draper 1940s-1950 February 7, 2004 Click on Images to Enlarge
	305 Cooper Street The Home of Dr. H. Genet Taylor & Family February 7, 2004 Click on Images to Enlarge
	306 Cooper Street Emma Hyland 1930s-1945

Above: 306 Cooper Street - The Pierre Apartments
	311 Cooper Street The Bloom Apartments Completed and opened for business February 1928 Property developed and building erected by Segwyn Realty, Inc.- Dr. Meyer Segal, Meyer Wessel, Hyman Bloom This building was known as Cooper Plaza Apartments in 1947.
	311 Cooper Street The Bloom Apartments Camden Courier-Post Newspaper Advertisement February 3, 1928
	300-312 Cooper Street February 7, 2004 Click on Images to Enlarge
	312 Cooper Street Camden Republican Club 1914-1922 Click on Images to Enlarge
	312 Cooper Street Headquarters of the Camden County Red Cross February 7, 2004 Click on Images to Enlarge
Below: Aerial Photo from late 1930 showing 201 to 311 Cooper Street

	315 Cooper Street Lodge 111 Loyal Order of Moose 1947
	318 Cooper Street The home of E.G.C. Bleakly prominent Camden attorney from 1910s through the 1950s Photograph published in 1915 Click on Images to Enlarge
	319 Cooper Street Furnished Rooms Camden Courier-Post June 7, 1933
	319 Cooper Street
	320 Cooper Street
	321 Cooper Street
	322 Cooper Street
	323 Cooper Street John J. Burleigh 1890
	323 Cooper Street Francis D. Weaver 1920s-1938
	323, 325 & 329 Cooper Street
	324 Cooper Street
	325 Cooper Street The Home and Office of Dr. Lettie Allen Ward
	326 Cooper Street February 7, 2004 Dr. Daniel Strock 1900s-1927 Garrett Cowls Joseph Hamilton Kay Hamilton April 2004- This building will be demolished to accommodate Rowan University Click on Images to Enlarge Razed in 2011 to make room for another "Urban Revitilization" project
	327 Cooper Street Francis Ford Patterson Jr. 1900s-1910s
	328 Cooper Street
	327 & 329 Cooper Street
	323 to 329 Cooper Street 300 Block
	328 Cooper Street
	329 Cooper Street 1955 William H. Sawyer private detective 1955 New Jersey Bell Telephone Yellow Pages Listing
	330 Cooper Street Dr. William H. Ireland Loretta Ireland 1880s-1904

	Streets of Camden, NJ Cooper Street continued
Unit, 100 & 200 Blocks	300 Block
400 Block	500 Block
600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, & 1200 Blocks
1900 & 2000 Block

The Helene Apartments at 125 North 3rd Street & 232 Cooper Street Southwest Corner of North 3rd & Cooper Streets

300 Block of Cooper Street The 2004 Rowan University Development Plan

Approved by the Camden Redevelopment agency in 2004, after Rowan University, never the best of neighbors in Glassboro, announced plans to seize the 300 block of Cooper and Market between 3rd and 4th Streets. Actions by the Redevelopment Agency protected the business, residences, and historic buildings, and in the end, only one standing property, 326 Cooper Street, presently unoccupied, will be razed, and the Camden County Red Cross, presently occupying 312 Cooper Street, will relocate. This is a real victory for all Camden citizens who pay taxes, as only one ratable was lost, while the assessed property values of those save will certainly rise- Phil Cohen, April 2004.