South Camden Trust Company - Camden, NJ
N 39° 55.314 W 075° 07.167
18S E 489792 N 4419095
Absolute clone of the other twelve bank and trust buildings on the NRHP from Camden, except this is on the outskirts of town. There is an insane amount of relief work and frieze and of course the obligatory cornerstone from the 20s, now long gone.
Waymark Code: WM8019
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2009
Views: 4
This is a HORRIBLE area and to visit at night would be to commit suicide. The entire area is run down, burned out, graffitied, polluted with garbage and pretty much dead. There is a beautiful church across the street and the original fire station from the 1800's is right down the street. This building, however, is the jewel of the block. This used to be the center of commerce in the 20s and 30s. The building contains many architectural wonders worthy of a NRHP site. One interesting curiosity, if you look at the building on GoogleEarth, you can see the building is shaped to fit the angles of the unusual intersection in which it was built. The cornerstone and name of the bank carved in stone along the front are long gone.
The South Camden Trust Company was opened for business on April 2, 1921. Judge Ralph W.E. Donges was the first president, plumbing and heating contractor William J. Kelly was one of the charter directors. By the mid 1920s the bank was successful enough to the point where a new building was called for. Architect Joseph Hettel of the firm Lackey & Hettel of Camden NJ was selected to design the new building, to be built at the corner of Broadway & Ferry Avenue, across the street form Judge Donges' boyhood home. Contractor James W. Draper began operations on the new banking house of the South Camden Trust Company, at Broadway and Ferry Avenue, on Monday, March 1, 1926.
The bank did not survive, however, and by 1947 the building was the home of the First Italian Pentecostal Church. Although the building has changed hands over the years, it remains open as a church to this day. SOURCE