CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY

OLGA'S DINER
 
1600 FEDERAL STREET

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OLGA'S DINER, for those poor souls who only know it as being located on Route 70 at Route 73 in Evesham Township, was originally located in Camden NJ. The diner above was built at some point after 1949. It soon became a popular Camden eatery, and remained so through the late 1970s.

Tom Agin recalls the early days of Olga's Diner:

I worked at the R.M. Hollingshead Co. from 1949-1959  (it is the large building visible in the picture behind Olga's)  and every day  I ate lunch at Olga's. The Olga's  shown was opened about (I think) 1951.

If you look directly across Federal Street from  the big Olga's to the left of  Warren-Webster, there is a long row of houses. Attached to the end house is (or was) a one story yellow brick building about the size of a 1 1/2  car garage. That was Olga's original diner. it had a little counter with a couple of stools and a couple of tables  with four chairs each. It was always crowded and had a waiting line.

It was the only place  to eat in walking distance and there were a significant number of  business's in the immediate area. As I heard at the time  Dick Hollingshead  helped Olga to get the necessary  loans and whatever to expand so we employees (and others in the area) would have a place to eat.


Olga's Diner

The railroad crossed Federal Street
between
Olga's Diner and the Iowa Soap Factory
to the
Warren Webster & Company factory

The ORIGINAL Olga's Diner as it appears on October 1, 2003
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