THE YEAR 1910

SPAN OF A CENTURY
1828-1928
100 YEARS IN THE HISTORY OF CAMDEN AS A CITY

COMPILED FROM NOTES ANDS DATA COLLECTED BY
CHARLES S. BOYER
PRESIDENT CAMDEN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PUBLISHED BY
CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE
OF CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AND NOTES BY PHILLIP COHEN IN 2003

The keel of the 26,000 ton battleship USS ARKANSAS was laid at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard on January 25, 1910. 

	USS ARKANSAS underway, shortly after commissioning Click on Image to Enlarge
Laid down by New York, Shipbuilding, Camden, NJ., January 25, 1910. Launched January 14, 1911. Commissioned September 17, 1912. Decommissioned July 29, 1946. Stricken August 15, 1946. Sunk July 25, 1946, During Atomic Bomb Test "Baker" Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.

BB-33 USS ARKANSAS Photo Archive

Street Commissioner Alfred L. Sayers started February 16, 1910 the system of collecting garbage and ashes at night. 

The big fire in Reeve’s Auto Garage on 7^th Street, between Market and Cooper Streets, early on the Morning of March 16, 1910 destroyed 23 automobiles. 

Jack Eldridge, a Camden boy, in the spring of 1910, walked from Boston to San Francisco for a prize of $2000, provided he made the trip in 100 days. He reached his destination in 77 days. 

Camden’s new automobile police patrol and ambulance were put in service on July 14, 1910. 

Lightning struck and set on fire one of the large buildings of Farr & Bailey Company on July 16, 1910. The damage was $60,000. 

Benjamin C. Reeve died at the age of 66 on July 28, 1910. He was a prominent businessman and banker in Camden for many years. 

It was noted in the newspapers of August 1910 that “Camden’s young people who formerly indulged in special trolley rides as a method of whiling away a warm summer evening, have changed to automobiling.” Previously the old fashioned straw ride was supplanted by the bus party; then came the trolley party and now the auto. 

The site on “Mickle Hill”, on Mount Ephraim Avenue, was selected as the new location for the West Jersey Homeopathioc Hospital in 1910. 

The Camden Lodge of Elks dedicated their rebuilt home at Broadway & Federal Street on October 18, 1910. This building was adjacent to the Camden YMCA, which was built at a later date. The Elks  building was subsequently sold in the 1920s. A series of stores were built about 1926, one of which was occupied by Horn & Hardart for many, many years, on the site. A new Elks home was completed on Cooper Street, above Broadway, in May of 1926. In 2003 the Elks Home houses the LEAP Academy charter school.

Postcards showing the Elks Building
	Above left: The Elks Home  Left and Above Right: YMCA and Elks Home Below Left: Looking South on Broadway,                   Elks Home on Left Below Right:  Looking South on Broadway,                      Late 1920s Note the stores and billboard                                 where Elks Home was. Click on Images to Enlarge