The pictures I snapped were at the 500 block of Cooper Street, the midpoint of the historic district. Not much has changed. There are some noticeable buildings in the distance not there anymore like the old courthouse with its dome...gone. It is an unusual street with houses and large buildings. intermixed amongst each other. There is the obligatory Trenton brownstone church, the huge, dilapidated hotel and of course a smattering of NHRP houses of historical importance.
This is also the home of Rutgers University so they have thrown some money this way as well and have taken over some buildings and homes, within the district and just outside of it as well. When the sun is low in the west, and you squint your eyes just right, you can imagine being back here in the 20s, at the height of this city, living amongst its splendor, indifferent to urban blight, crime, drugs and death. My dad lived here in the 30s and 40s and he said it was the jewel f New Jersey. I always found that hard to believe until Waymarking caused me to explore and I discovered he was right..and then some.
In the mid 80s i lived at 510 Cooper Street. This place was a mansion and fairly representative of the beautiful homes which line this street. It is sad as these homes are everywhere, but in other places they are mostly crack houses, burned out shells of what once was. Cooper Street is fairly safe now, a haven or oasis in this City. Leave it and you are taking a big risk. 25 years ago we walked around and the place was horrifying. Now, because of the NRHP status, the rebirth is real and the progress made in this historic district has yielded incredible financial dividends.
The posted coordinates are for my old mansion.
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. (Source listed below in secondary URL field)
Read THIS if you are really interested and want to learn more.