4 10 100 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text Matilda Toy operated a boarding house during 1887 at 37 Cooper Street, where she lived with her husband, Jacob, an electrician. Their boarders included Bowman Shivers, sergeant-at-arms office (doorkeeper) for the United States Senate; John Willits, a laborer; Amos Homan, a cigar dealer; and Matilda's brother Harry Lounsberry, a tinsmith. Matilda Toy subsequently operated boarding houses at other addresses in the vicinity of the Camden waterfront. Following the death of Jacob Toy c. 1895, Matilda met her second husband, widowed railroad foreman William P. Lewis, when he lived as a boarder in her home at 422 Stevens Street. They married in 1904. Time period on Cooper Street 1887 Location(s) - Cooper Street 37 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 309 Market Street (operated boarding house, 1888) 403 Arch Street (operated boarding house, 1891) 422 Stevens Street (operated boarding house from at least 1895 until at least 1900) Birth Date January 1849 Birthplace New Jersey Associated Individuals Jacob Toy (first husband, d. by 1895) Harry T. L. Toy (son), b. February 1872, a paper hanger in 1900 Vera H. Toy (daughter), b. November 1883 Bowman H. Shivers (boarder) John Willits (boarder) Amos Homan (boarder) Harry Lounsberry (brother and boarder) Charles B. Lounsberry (brother, Elizabeth NJ in 1912) Alfretta Lounsberry (sister, in Camden in 1912) Arilia L. Phillips (sister, in St. Paul in 1912) William P. Lewis (second husband, married in 1904) Occupation Boarding house operator Death Date March 8, 1911 Research by Charlene Mires Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey Marriage Index (Ancestry.com) Obituary for Matilda Lounsberry, Monmouth Democrat, March 14, 1912 (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Toy, Matilda Description An account of the resource Matilda Toy is an example of an itinerant boarding house operator, moving to different rented houses from year to year. 00 Block 37 Cooper Street Adult Boarding House Operator Female Widows Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text For about 20 years, from c. 1888 until 1908, the Reverend William H. Burrell performed marriages for couples who presented themselves at his home at 43 Cooper Street. He was among a group of Camden clergymen described in newspapers as operating "marriage mills," which offered swift weddings in contrast to more burdensome marriage licensing requirements implemented across the river in Pennsylvania in 1885. Burrell, a Methodist Episcopal minister who served at least three congregations in Philadelphia before moving to Camden c. 1888, proved especially successful in the marriage market. The Camden Courier-Post reported in October 1888 that Camden registered between 400 and 500 marriages per month, with Burrell performing an average of five marriages a day for a fee of $2.50 each. Burrell may have benefited from the downfall of Joseph J. Sleeper, 51 Cooper Street, whose qualifications to perform marriages came into question during an 1888 bigamy case. In addition to the close proximity to the Camden ferries, which Sleeper had advertised, Burrell differed from some of his pastoral colleagues by not insisting on personally knowing the bride and groom or having an acquaintance to vouch for them. He also would perform weddings on Sundays, which others did not. In all, the Courier-Post estimated that Burrell's yearly income from weddings could total about four times what he would have earned by serving a congregation. Burrell, about 66 years old when he moved to Camden, owned his three-story row house at 43 Cooper Street (between Front and Delaware) and headed a household consisting of his wife, Elizabeth, and adult daughter, Alma. His daughter Margaret and son-in-law Charles W. Boyle, a telegrapher, owned the row house next door at 41 Cooper Street. The marriage business brought occasional drama to 43 Cooper Street. In 1891, two already-married reporters from the Philadelphia Press launched a personal investigation and found they were able to get married in Camden under different aliases five times in the space of two days by Burrell and others. At other times, enraged parents of allegedly under-aged brides and grooms appeared to protest the nuptials. Burrell lived at 43 Cooper Street until his death in 1909. He and his wife, Elizabeth (who died in 1903), were buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. Time period on Cooper Street c. 1888-1909 Location(s) - Cooper Street 43 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Cochranville, West Fallowfield, Chester County (1870 Census) 79 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia (1880 Census) Waynesburg Methodist Episcopal Church, Chester County Twentieth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Hancock Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Cookman Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Ocean City, New Jersey (preacher at camp meeting, operated W.H. Burrell & Son general merchandise business with son Harry G. Burrell until 1883) Bethany Methodist Episcopal Church, Camden, (guest preacher April 1888) Camden Home for Women, 527 S. Fifth Street (to speak about temperance, April 1888) Occupation Clergyman (Methodist Episcopal) Birthplace New Jersey (both parents born in Pennsylvania) Death Date October 14, 1909, buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia Associated Individuals Elizabeth A. Burrell (wife) Margaret Burrell Boyle (daughter) Lilly Burrell (daughter) Harry Burrell (son) William Burrell (son, became funeral director in Camden) Alma Burrell (daughter) Lottie Staples (niece) Charles W. Boyle (son-in-law, married to daughter Margaret, 41 Cooper Street) Lillian Boyle (granddaughter) William E. Boyle (grandson) Joseph J. Sleeper (neighbor, 51 Cooper Street) Birth Date 1822 Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) "A Month's Marriages," Camden Courier-Post, October 17, 1888, and additional news stories in the Camden Daily Telegraph, Morning Post, and Courier-Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires Lucy Davis Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Burrell, William H. Description An account of the resource William Burrell, a clergyman, performed weddings for couples seeking to evade license requirements in Philadelphia. 00 Block 1880s 1890s 1900s 43 Cooper Street Adult Clergy Male Methodist Episcopal Philadelphia Religion Weddings Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text James I. Battle is the only known African American to move from a position of service to head his own household on Cooper Street. Born in Georgia in 1876, by the 1890s Battle had migrated north and settled in Camden. From 1896 until 1899, he worked as a live-in janitor for the Camden Republican Club at 312 Cooper Street. He left this job and the housing it provided in 1899, when he married another African American migrant from Georgia, Hattie Daniels. They made their home at 403 Friends Avenue for most of the first quarter of the twentieth century, but for four years (1909-1912), they returned to Cooper Street. City directories and the U.S. Census of 1910 find them at 63 Cooper Street, a three-story brick row house that they rented just east of Front Street. At that time, their house and two adjacent (61 and 65) belonged to the Victor Talking Machine Company, where James also worked as a steward. Their departure from the Cooper Street home in 1912 coincided with Victor's plans to build its new headquarters on the same site at Cooper and Front Streets. The Battles, who had no children, returned to 403 Friends Avenue until the 1920s, when they moved to Atlantic City. Time period on Cooper Street 1896-99, 1909-12 Location(s) - Cooper Street 312 Cooper Street (1896, 1897, 1898, 1899) 63 Cooper Street (1909, 1910, 1911, 1912) Location(s) - Other Atlantic City: 131 Willow Avenue (1894) Camden: 640 Cherry Street (1900) Camden: 403 Friends ' Avenue (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908; 1916, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1926) Atlantic City: 704 Arctic Avenue (1926, 1927, 1929) Occupation Janitor for Camden Republican Club (1896-1899) Steward / Waiter Birth Date October 3, 1876 Birthplace Georgia Death Date Unknown Associated Individuals Hattie (Daniels) Battle, wife, married 1899 in Camden John W. Battle, relationship unknown, co-worker at Camden Republican Club Anna Daniels, mother-in-law Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Battle, James Iverson Description An account of the resource Once a janitor, James Battle may be the only African American to advance from a position of service on Cooper Street to heading his own household. 00 Block 1890s 1900s 300 Block 312 Cooper Street 63 Cooper Street Adult African Americans Alumni House Janitor Male Southern Migration Steward Victor Talking Machine Company Waiter Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text Margaret Chambers, a boarding house operator and entrepreneur, was a fixture at 59 Cooper Street for two decades beginning in 1893. In addition to the home she owned at 59 Cooper, between Front and Point Streets, her boarding house business extended at times to two adjacent row houses and other addresses in Camden. In this way she cultivated an income independent of her husband, a saloon keeper sometimes at odds with the law. How Margaret came to be in Camden is a mystery. Born in south-central Ohio in 1854, she lived in her home community through a first marriage and gave birth to three children. But sometime after the death of her first husband, in 1884, she moved east, possible joining other extended family members in the Philadelphia area. By 1889, she had married John Chambers, a Camden saloon keeper. In the years following their marriage, John Chambers seemed to aspire to greater respectability as he opened the John Chambers Hotel and Restaurant, at Broadway and Division Streets, in 1891 and the next year became the proprietor of the Exchange Hotel at Second and Market Streets. However, he had already drawn the attention of local authorities for not strictly following the requirements of Camden's retail liquor license by serving drinks by the pitcher. In 1895, he was charged with assault and battery (although ultimately found not guilty) in a dispute over a customer's payments for drinks. In 1897, he was arrested again for selling alcohol on Sundays. Margaret Chambers, meanwhile, took steps to assure an independent living. In 1893, she purchased in her own name a three-story brick row house at 59 Cooper Street, across the street from the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company. In addition to two sons from her previous marriage, by 1895 six boarders lived in the 11-room home. Her husband, John Chambers, appears to have been an inconsistent presence; although he continued to be listed intermittently in Camden city directories, census takers did not find him at 59 Cooper Street in 1895, 1900, 1905, or 1910. During 1900 and 1901, at least, he lived across the river in Philadelphia and Margaret began representing herself in public records as a widow, representing separation or desertion. In 1901, she went to court in Philadelphia to attest that her husband was unfit to renew a liquor license he then held for 600 Beach Street in that city. Margaret struggled to keep up with the taxes on her Cooper Street boarding house, but she nevertheless expanded her business by 1910 to include two adjacent row houses (57 and 61) and another boarding house at 1724 S. Fourth Street. By this time 60 years old, she employed a chamber maid to assist with the laborious effort of housing and feeding her boarders. She rented primarily to single people who worked in nearby businesses and industries and sometimes to widows or couples, some with children. Margaret Chambers persisted in Camden until 1913, around the time when the Victor Talking Machine Company purchased and demolished houses in her block to build its new headquarters office building at Front and Cooper. By this time she also had obtained a divorce from John Chambers, whose fate is otherwise difficult to trace in public records due to other individuals with the same name. During the summer of 1913, Margaret spent six weeks revisiting her home community in Ohio. Although she returned to Camden, by November she was back in Ohio and was married for a third time, to a local farmer and landholder. She lived the remainder of her days in Chillicothe, Ohio, and died in 1934. Time period on Cooper Street 1893-1913 Location(s) - Cooper Street 59 Cooper Street (owned) 57 and 61 Cooper Street (operated as boarding houses) Location(s) - Other 326 Market Street (boarding house, 1892) 1724 S. Fourth Street (boarding house, 1910) Chillicothe, Ohio (before and after residence in Camden) Occupation Boarding house operator Birth Date July 1854 Birthplace Chillicothe, Ohio Death Date 1934 Associated Individuals Augustus Miller, first husband (in Ohio, died 1884) Jacob Worth Miller, son (a civil engineer, died of tuberculosis in 1905 while living at 59 Cooper Street) Charles Miller, son (insurance agent in 1910) Mary E. Miller, daughter John Chambers, second husband Jenice Butter, live-in chamber maid employed in 1910 Nora Butter, milliner, daughter of Jenice Butter Alise Butter (child), daughter of Jenice Butter Gottfried Frick, third husband, in Ohio Audrey L. Menuez, niece, in Philadelphia Known boarders in Camden, 1893-1910: Gideon York Albert Hoey Nancy Joyslin Sallie Walker Charles Brownlow Thomas Jutt Marie/Maria Sterling, play writer Franklin Smith, bookkeeper William Watson, produce salesman Carrie Broonie, pen raiser Richard Obee, play writer Charles Twitchell, machinist Charles Carpenter, machinist Louis Glover, machinist Benjamin Westhoff, machinist Edwin Madden, house painter William Banker, foreman Mary Banker Isaac Stein, cabinetmaker, house painter Emma Stein, operator, pen works Evalyn Senyard, paper box maker Elsie Senyard (child) John Seaman, pull over, shoe factory Estella Seaman Russell Seaman (child) Harry Green, carriage painter Madge Green Ruth Green (child) Jessie Bartlet, mechanical draftsman Victor Philips, ship wright Burkley Philips, ship wright Sources Camden and Philadelphia City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey and U.S. Censuses (Ancestry.com) Newspaper reports in the Camden Daily Telegram, Camden Morning Post, Philadelphia Times, and Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette (Newspapers.com) Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chambers, Margaret Description An account of the resource Margaret Chambers, a boarding house operator and entrepreneur, was a fixture at 59 Cooper Street for two decades beginning in 1893. 00 Block 1890s 1900s 1910s 57 Cooper Street 59 Cooper Street 61 Cooper Street Adult Boarding House Operator Female Philadelphia Saloons Widows Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text John Hanmore and his wife, Eleanor, together with two adult daughters and two grandchildren, were among the first residents of new Cooper Street row houses built between Front Street and Delaware Avenue in 1883. They moved to 65 Cooper Street in Camden from a middle-class, managerial neighborhood of Philadelphia, demonstrating the appeal of Camden as a commuter suburb for the larger city across the Delaware River. The Hanmores' new home was arguably the most desirable of the newly built, three-story homes, standing on the corner of Front and Cooper immediately west of the open square of the Cooper family mansion (later Johnson Park). The Hanmores filled their new home with walnut, oak, and mahogany furniture, installed window boxes for flowers, and added bay windows to the side of their row house that faced the square. One of the adult daughters, Elizabeth Hanmore, offered art lessons for schoolgirls. For John Hanmore, commuting from Camden to his work as a Philadelphia manufacturer of boiler and pipe coverings was likely easier and shorter than before—across the ferry to his business location on Delaware Avenue instead of a streetcar ride of more than 20 blocks from his earlier home at 2323 Green Street in Philadelphia. The family’s presence on Cooper Street proved to be a short one, however, because of John Hanmore’s sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack in 1885. The Camden County Courier described his last moments with dramatic flair: "The deceased had been out riding with his daughter on the evening of his death, and returned about eight o'clock, sat down to the supper table with the rest of his family in apparently good spirits. He was just in the act of handing a cup to his little [grand]daughter when suddenly he fell from his chair to the floor. The members of the family came to his assistance, and raised him up, but life was extinct. Death was caused by paralysis of the heart, induced by consumption." The family remained at 65 Cooper Street for three years longer, but thereafter the property served as a boarding house until its demolition to allow for the 1913 construction of a new office building headquarters for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Time period on Cooper Street c. 1883-1885 Location(s) - Cooper Street 65 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 2323 Green Street, Philadelphia (previous address) 7 S. Delaware Avenue (business address) Occupation Manufacturer of felt coverings for pipes and boilers Birth Date c. 1825 Birthplace Newburgh, New York Death Date April 4, 1885 Associated Individuals Eleanor Hanmore (wife) Elizabeth Hanmore (daughter) Mary Gerard (daughter) May / Marie Gerard (granddaughter) Roy Gerard (grandson) Sources Camden and Philadelphia City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey and U.S. Censuses (Ancestry.com) Death of John Hanmore reported in Camden County Courier, August 7, 1885; legal notice for construction of bay windows published in Camden Courier-Post, March 31, 1885; art lessons advertised in Courier-Post on various dates in 1884 and 1885; public sale of household contents advertised in Courier-Post, June 6, 1888. Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hanmore, John Description An account of the resource John Hanmore, a Philadelphia manufacturer, moved his family to a new home on Cooper Street during the 1880s. His death changed the family's fortunes. 00 Block 1880s 65 Cooper Street Adult Death Interiors Male Manufacturers Philadelphia Renovations https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/bccf2be593494953528898fa92b4a99a.jpg d34376f3b4da30b37055cb4a19f090d2 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/9d3e59ea1482fc62da01e3035b708308.jpg f1e123e52e6c1ac1142a7e8b04fbc5d5 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/5f894fd3ae04bf37fbdcb639ecceacb5.jpg b360f4fd1bdc23c4ae7b84d6441ac541 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/e1f81fe58d97f03a530b4074c3ec01c1.jpg f9329f8aa7bf2c05257b0caffed7ff20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Buildings Description An account of the resource Houses and other structures on Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. Place Residence, business, or other entity. Significance 421 Cooper Street is a contributing structure of the Cooper Street Historic District, which is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. One of the earliest houses to be built on the north side of Cooper Street, the house is distinctive in representing financial strategies of widows during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The house also reflects the historic district's statement of significance that Cooper Street demonstrates "change from residential and professional to commercial." The 421 Cooper Street building began as a family home then turned to professional and commercial uses in the twentieth century. The Mission Revival renovation, likely completed within the district's stated period of significance (1810-1937), invokes Spanish influences and represents the home's adapted use as an office building. The building also has a notable history associated with women's entrepreneurship on Cooper Street, the experiences of childhood and youth, and health services (for sight and hearing). A graduate of Rutgers Law School had an office at this address for many years, and during a period in the 1970s Rutgers students lived in dormitory-style space upstairs. Rutgers acquired the building in 1999. Architectural style Originally a Greek Revival row house, 421 Cooper Street has been embellished by Mission Revival details added during the twentieth century renovation of the building for business uses. Date of construction c. 1848, remodeled c. 1926 History The adjoining rowhouses at 421 and <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/40" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">419</a> Cooper Street were among the first to be built on the north side of Cooper Street as Cooper family descendants began to divide and sell their inherited property during the 1840s and 1850s. A broker and volunteer firefighter living in Philadelphia, Joseph R. Paulson, and his wife Mildred K. Paulson bought these lots in 1847. At least one house existed on the property by the end of 1848, when Joseph Paulson, at the age of 36, drew up an agreement that revealed expectations of an early death: he placed the properties in trust with his mother-in-law, Hester Keen, with instructions that she collect rents to support his wife and children, a son also named Joseph (then 13 years old) and daughter Emily (then age 5). A death notice for Joseph R. Paulson appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on November 29, 1849. The family invited relatives, friends, and members of the Humane Engine Company in Philadelphia to his funeral “from his late residence, Cooper Street, near Fifth, Camden, N.J.” They proceeded from there back to Philadelphia on the Arch Street ferry for his burial at Monument Cemetery. His cause of death was not made public. The property on Cooper Street, as he intended, remained a source of rental income and periodically a home for his descendants for the next 75 years. A Soldier's Family during the Civil War From 1863 (perhaps earlier) until at least 1869, 421 Cooper Street was the rented home of the Harbert family: Samuel C. Harbert, a dealer in agricultural implements in Philadelphia; his wife, Georgianna; and daughters Mary Virginia and Ella. During the first two years of the Civil War, Harbert served as regimental quartermaster in the New Jersey Fourth Infantry Regiment. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UNJ0004RI01" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New Jersey Fourth</a> participated in the defense of Washington until March 1862 and then advanced into Virginia and saw action in battles that included Yorktown, Bull Run, and Fredericksburg. Another Camden soldier, 17-year-old Thomas James Howell, demonstrated affection for Harbert's daughter Mary in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/This_Will_Make_a_Man_of_Me/LyJsDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letters he wrote home</a> before being killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862. Harbert mustered out of the New Jersey Fourth in January 1863 and thereafter served as an officer in the U.S. Volunteers Paymaster's Department Infantry Regiment until November 1865, reaching the rank of major. He also served on the Camden City Council from 1869 to 1871, when the family relocated to Philadelphia, his place of business. Samuel (1818-1888), Georgianna (1821-92), and the daughters are buried in Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. Family Legacy As the original owner, Joseph Paulson, intended, the Cooper Street property supported his wife during her lifetime and upon her death conveyed to their two children. The siblings, adults by the time of their mother’s death in 1875, then divided ownership of the houses on their inherited land. Joseph Paulson, bearing the same name as his father, became the owner of 421 Cooper Street and a smaller house at the back of the property facing Lawrence Street. The homes continued to be rented to tenants. Hazards of Youth in the 1880s From around 1883 until 1892, the home at 421 Cooper Street was rented by the Kean family (sometimes spelled Keen, but apparently not related to the property owners). William C. Kean, a clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his wife Sarah, headed a family with two daughters and five sons living at home during this period. Sarah Kean's brother, Robert W. Downing, served as Comptroller for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which by 1888 also employed one of the Kean sons, then 17-year-old Charles A., as a clerk. Camden newspapers recorded some of the experiences of the Kean sons, illustrating some of the hazards of youth the late nineteenth century. In 1884, 18-year-old Edmund suffered a severe contusion of his foot during a rough ride on a ferry boat in fog. In 1885, he made the news again for impertinence to the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, which expelled him. In 1888, 15-year-old Harry and 13-year-old Joseph (known as Josie) were involved in a tree-cutting accident at their grandparents' farm near Woodbury, with Josie suffering axe cuts to his ankle. ("The shoe saved the foot from being entirely cut off, " the Camden Morning Post reported.) One of the boys, Robert (known as Bertie) did not live to adulthood. He died in the 421 Cooper Street home in July 1890 at the age of 13 from causes not publicly reported. The Camden Morning Post described him as "a bright and promising lad and his affection nature made him a favorite with his companions." As customary, his funeral service also took place at home. In 1893, the Camden city directory announced the Kean sons as "removed to Philadelphia," and their parents were also across the river by the time of the 1900 Census (at 527 Broad Street, an area favored by transportation magnates). One of the Kean sons, William Jr., became a real estate developer of homes in the Germantown section of Northwest Philadelphia. Security for a Widow The Paulson family returned to 421 Cooper Street by 1897, opening a new period when the house again served as a source of income for a widow with young children. <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/41" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mary A. Maxwell</a> was 27 years old when she married a widower 30 years her senior, Joseph R. Paulson—the son of first owner of 421 Cooper Street. Joseph lived in Philadelphia, listed in public records variously as an optician, cutlery maker, and jewelry merchant. With Joseph, Mary had two children and together they moved back to Camden and the 421 Cooper Street home. By the 1900 Census, the household consisted of Joseph, age 64; Mary, age 34; their sons Joseph Jr., age 6, and Charles, age 5, and a housekeeper, 55-year-old Clara Brewer. By 1905, Brewer's place had been taken by 21-year-old Rachel Ball, an African American who like many others in the early twentieth century had migrated north from Virginia. The family also added a daughter, Ruth, born 1902. The Paulsons lived at 421 Cooper Street for at least a decade and then, by 1910, made another move to the more fashionable suburb of Haddonfield. Still, they retained ownership of 421 Cooper Street. In 1911, when Joseph died, the family's former home became a source of financial security for Mary and her children. Mary rented out 421 Cooper Street to other families while living next door at <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/40" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">419 Cooper Street</a>, the other half of the Paulson family property that had passed to Joseph’s sister, Emily. The house at 421 for almost a decade became the rented home for another extended family headed by a widow, Clara Starn, until that family moved in 1920 to Merchantville. It remained a source of income for Mary Paulson and her family until 1925; its change of ownership that year warranted a story in the Camden Courier-Post to note that the property had been in the hands of only two families--the Paulsons and the Coopers--since Camden's earliest history. 1920s Disruption, Opportunity, and Renovation During the 1920s, a series of disruptions and transitions led Camden boosters to view Cooper Street as a potential business corridor. Construction of the Delaware River Bridge (later renamed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge), completed in 1926, caused demolition of nineteenth-century homes in nearby blocks. Near the Delaware waterfront, the Victor Talking Machine Company demolished a block of Cooper Street homes to expand its factories. Commercial-scale buildings such as the Wilson Building, Camden's first skyscraper (620 Cooper, completed 1925), and the Plaza Hotel (500 Cooper, completed 1927), began to appear. Controversially for longtime residents, Cooper Street was widened in anticipation of increasing automobile traffic. In the midst of these transitions, 421 Cooper Street changed from a family home to an office building. It was one of a series of renovation projects managed by Julia M. Carey, a 26-year-old daughter of Irish immigrants who had worked as a stenographer and notary before finding new opportunity in real estate sales during the 1920s. On behalf of the Bell-Oliver Corporation, she sold three Cooper Street houses--321, 421, and 521--to investors and stayed on to manage and remodel them. The renovations by the "energetic realty lady" were reported in the Camden Courier-Post of September 11, 1926: at 421 Cooper Street, Carey turned the home into an office building, and leased an office there for herself. (Meanwhile, she turned 321 Cooper Street into an eight-unit apartment house and 521 into offices for lawyers.) It appears likely that Carey was responsible for the Mission Revival-style ornament that obscured the original facade of 421 Cooper Street. This Spanish-influenced style, which originated on the West Coast, had been rare in Camden but made two other appearances on Cooper Street during the 1920s: in a new commercial building at 525 Cooper and in the Chalcar Apartments building in the 200 block. The renovation of 421 Cooper Street, with enlarged windows and structural changes necessary to install the new Mission Revival ornament, is visible in an aerial photograph of the vicinity of the Delaware River Bridge approach taken c. 1926. The completed renovation can also be seen in the 1947 advertisement published at the top of this page. Julia M. Carey lived at least briefly, c. 1929-1931, in one of the apartments she created at 321 Cooper Street. She remained involved with the neighborhood until at least 1940, when the Camden city directory listed her as having a real estate office at 521 Cooper. Helen's Beauty Shop After the renovation of 421 Cooper, the building had a variety of office tenants, including an insurance agency and promoters of the new Arlington Mausoleum in Pennsauken. But the business tenant who became most well-known to Camden during the 1930s and 1940s arrived in 1933, when <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/39" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Helen Waters</a> opened a beauty shop on the second floor. She vigorously promoted her business with display advertising and flattering promotional articles in the Camden newspapers, encouraging the women of Camden to come to her for the latest in hairstyling and cosmetics. By the time Helen opened her shop at 421 Cooper, she had been widowed and her work as a beautician supported two daughters. The 1930 Census found her at age 30 living at the Harding Villa Apartments on Federal Street while her daughters Patricia and Dorothy, then aged 9 and 10, lived with her parents Daniel and Lida Chester elsewhere in Camden. Helen, who had an eighth-grade education, worked as a beautician for Binder's Beauty Shop in Philadelphia before opening her own establishment at 421 Cooper Street, where she and her daughters also came to live. In 1938, Waters added cosmetics and facials to her business. Her daughters both graduated from high school, including at least one year at Mount St. Mary's Academy run by the Sisters of Mercy in Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1940, living with their mother at 421 Cooper, Dorothy worked as a typist and Patricia as a telephone operator. Patricia actively promoted a women's basketball league in Camden for former high school players. Other businesses and organizations, including the Camden County Real Estate Board and the Camden County Democratic Party, had offices in 421 Cooper while Helen operated the shop and lived upstairs. In 1945, after both of her daughters had married, Helen bought the building but retained ownership only until 1947. When she put 421 Cooper Street up for sale, it offered an office suite on the first floor, additional office space on the second floor, "plus three nicely planned apartments with modern tile baths." Helen continued to operate her beauty salon in the building until at least 1950, but after its sale she moved behind it to 426 Lawrence Street. Residential, Professional, Commercial During the second half of the twentieth century, 421 Cooper Street served all elements of the transitions noted in the justification for naming Cooper Street a historic district on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1989. Its next owner, Ernest F. Birbeck, was an optician who moved his practice from the Plaza Hotel, then nearby at Fifth and Cooper Street, into 421 Cooper in 1950. He commuted from Pennsauken until he retired in 1967. His business tenants included a hearing aid center and a eyewear shop whose co-owner, B. Morozin, became the next owner of 421 Cooper. Under Morozin's ownership in the early 1970s, Rutgers-Camden students lived upstairs in space advertised as "dorm style" with a kitchen, dining room and air conditioning, for up to 10 people. The Rutgers connection to 421 Cooper Street continued when another office tenant, lawyer Joseph Liebman, purchased the building in 1977. Liebman, a graduate of Rutgers Law School in Camden, lived in Philadelphia but according to information published in the Courier-Post had an office in 421 Cooper Street for fifty-five years. After one more change of ownership to another Philadelphia attorney/investor, Raymond Quaglia, Rutgers acquired the building in 1999. On February 27, 2020, the Camden Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to dismiss with prejudice an application by Rutgers to demolish 421 Cooper Street. It further recommended reconstruction of the building, including restoring the facade. On March 6, 2020, a request from Rutgers for emergency demolition of 421 Cooper Street was declined by the Historic Preservation Office of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on the basis that the building's condition resulted from long-term deterioration. On June 11, 2020, the Camden City Planning Board voted unanimously to deny Rutgers' request to demolish 421 Cooper Street. Illustrations 1. 421 Cooper Street in 2019. (Photograph by Jacob Lechner) 2. 421 Cooper Street, indicated by arrow, early twentieth century prior to 1913. (Camden County Historical Society) 3. 421 Cooper Street, circled, c. 1926, showing renovation. (<a href="https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A61821?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=5ef67e7ccf54ba06b0c8&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Photograph detail</a>, Library Company of Philadelphia) 4. Advertisement, Camden Courier-Post, September 20, 1947. Associated Individuals All known residents and businesses are listed in the Cooper Street Database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gz3_mGk3FcNl0TPaOZAq6B1CHvOpqRcY7a99xkp_l4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">click here</a> and scroll to 421. Sources Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com). Camden City Directories (Camden County Historical Society and Ancestry.com). Camden County Property Records. Cooper Street Historic District, National Register Nomination, U.S. Department of Interior. Digital Photographs Collection, Library Company of Philadelphia. New Jersey State Census, 1885, 1895, 1915, and U.S. Census, 1870-1950 (Ancestry.com). Property Report, 421 Cooper Street, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Structures Survey, 421 Cooper Street, New Jersey Office of Cultural and Environmental Services. Note on sources: The historic structure report for this property dates it as “before 1885.” This research updates and corrects the record. Research by Charlene Mires, Kaya Durkee Posted by Charlene Mires Send corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 421 Cooper Street Description An account of the resource Contributing structure, Cooper Street Historic District. 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 400 Block 421 Cooper Street African Americans Apartments Attorneys Beauticians Bridge Impact Childhood Civil War Cosmetics Death Domestic Life Extended Family Greek Revival Haddonfield Health and Medicine Injuries Merchantville Mission Revival Opticians Pennsauken Philadelphia Railroad Workers Real Estate Renovations Rutgers-Camden Servants Widows https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/6962da4a6cae5a9775811c8fbef23c82.jpg d1dbcb973c038eafeb181860033c15a3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text In 1933, Helen Waters opened a beauty shop on the second floor of 421 Cooper Street. She vigorously promoted her business with display advertising and flattering promotional articles in the Camden newspapers, encouraging the women of Camden to come to her for the latest in hairstyling and cosmetics. By the time Helen opened her shop at 421 Cooper, she had been widowed and her work as a beautician supported two daughters. The 1930 Census found her at age 30 living at the Harding Villa Apartments on Federal Street while her daughters Patricia and Dorothy, then aged 9 and 10, lived with her parents Daniel and Lida Chester elsewhere in Camden. Helen, who had an eighth-grade education, worked as a beautician for Binder's Beauty Shop in Philadelphia before opening her own establishment at 421 Cooper Street, where she and her daughters also came to live. In 1938, Waters added cosmetics and facials to her business. Her daughters both graduated from high school, including at least one year at Mount St. Mary's Academy run by the Sisters of Mercy in Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1940, living with their mother at 421 Cooper, Dorothy worked as a typist and Patricia as a telephone operator. Patricia actively promoted a women's basketball league in Camden for former high school players. The 421 Cooper Street building, originally a Greek Revival row house, had been renovated into an office building with Mission Revival embellishments. Other businesses and organizations, including the Camden County Real Estate Board and the Camden County Democratic Party, had offices in the building while Helen operated the shop and lived upstairs. In 1945, after both of her daughters had married, Helen bought the building but retained ownership only until 1947. When she put 421 Cooper Street up for sale, it offered an office suite on the first floor, additional office space on the second floor, "plus three nicely planned apartments with modern tile baths." Helen continued to operate her beauty salon in the building until at least 1950, but after its sale she moved behind it to 426 Lawrence Street. (Illustration: Advertisement, Camden Morning Post, October 6, 1933.) Time period on Cooper Street 1933-1947 Location(s) - Cooper Street 421 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Harding Villa Apartments, Federal Street Binder's Beauty Shop, Philadelphia 426 Lawrence Street Occupation Beautician Birth Date c. 1900 Birthplace New Jersey (likely Cape May, listed there at 5 months old in 1900 U.S. Census) Death Date Unknown (after 1950) Associated Individuals Daniel and Lida Chester (parents) Joseph Waters (husband) Dorothy Waters (daughter, married Edwin J. Schmidt Jr. of Oaklyn, N.J., in 1940) Patricia Waters (daughter, married John Tesik of Hazleton, Pa., warrant officer in U.S. Navy, in 1945) Sources Camden City Directories, 1930-1947 (Ancestry.com) Camden Newspapers, 1930-1950 (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census, 1930-1940 (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires and Kaya Durkee Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Waters, Helen Description An account of the resource Helen Waters, a widow, supported her family by operating a beauty salon on the second floor of 421 Cooper Street from the 1930s to at least 1950. 1930s 1940s 400 Block 421 Cooper Street 426 Lawrence Street Adult Beauticians Cape May Cosmetics Female Philadelphia Widows https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/e6d095749280003cc512cb78a109e073.jpg 788b6862485144125bd6fb1fc623ed4a https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/bfc6a7b032eccf390cca76cc9a9c3947.jpg fec7335650ea1fdd808c433f8678f688 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Buildings Description An account of the resource Houses and other structures on Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. Place Residence, business, or other entity. Significance 419 Cooper Street is a contributing structure of the Cooper Street Historic District, which is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. The district is defined as representing broad patterns of American history, including the importance of ferry connections between Camden and Philadelphia: "By its geographic location, Cooper Street literally became South Jersey's thoroughfare to downtown Philadelphia. The fortune of Cooper Street, and of Camden as a whole, rose when people and goods moved through them to board ferries to the larger city across the Delaware River." This is amply illustrated by the history of 419 Cooper Street, which through the nineteenth century housed a series of families with livelihoods tied to business in Philadelphia. As an investment property generating income, 419 Cooper Street also represents financial strategies of widows during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building's twentieth century history reflects the historic district's stated significance as a place of "change from residential and professional to commercial." Rutgers connections to this property extend to the 1960s, when Rutgers students were among apartment tenants in the building. Rutgers purchased the property in 2007. Architectural style Originally a Greek Revival rowhouse; new brick facing added after 1985, when the original facade is visible in a photograph taken that year for structures surveys by the New Jersey Office of Cultural and Environmental Services. Date of construction c. 1848 Illustrations 1. 419 Cooper Street, photograph taken September 2010. 2. 419 Cooper Street, early twentieth century prior to 1913. (Camden County Historical Society) History The adjoining rowhouses at 419 and <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/38" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">421</a> Cooper Street were among the first to be built on the north side of Cooper Street as Cooper family descendants began to divide and sell their inherited property during the 1840s and 1850s. A broker and volunteer firefighter living in Philadelphia, Joseph R. Paulson, and his wife Mildred K. Paulson bought these lots in 1847. At least one house existed on the property by the end of 1848, when Joseph Paulson, at the age of 36, drew up an agreement that revealed expectations of an early death: he placed the properties in trust with his mother-in-law, Hester Keen, with instructions that she collect rents to support his wife and children, a son also named Joseph (then 13 years old) and daughter Emily (then age 5). A death notice for Joseph R. Paulson appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on November 29, 1849. The family invited relatives, friends, and members of the Humane Engine Company in Philadelphia to his funeral “from his late residence, Cooper Street, near Fifth, Camden, N.J.” They proceeded from there back to Philadelphia on the Arch Street ferry for his burial at Monument Cemetery. His cause of death was not made public. The property on Cooper Street, as he intended, remained a source of rental income and periodically a home for his descendants for the next 75 years. Philadelphia Commuters Some of the nineteenth-century tenants of 419 Cooper Street demonstrate the historic importance of Camden, and Cooper Street in particular, as a transportation corridor between South Jersey and Philadelphia. Homes on Cooper Street allowed for a short walk to the Delaware River ferries for commuting to Philadelphia. By 1862, during the Civil War, 419 Cooper Street had become home to Joseph Fearon, a wholesale grocer who had his business at 19 S. Water Street in Philadelphia. In addition to Joseph's wife, Catharine, the Fearon household included five children aged 12 and younger and two Irish-born domestic servants. Another Philadelphia-based food merchant, fruit importer Silas Warner, and his family lived at 419 Cooper for several years during the 1870s (c. 1871-73). Family Legacy As the original owner, Joseph Paulson, intended, the Cooper Street property supported his wife during her lifetime and upon her death conveyed to their two children. The siblings, adults by the time of their mother’s death in 1875, then divided ownership of the houses on their inherited land. Joseph Paulson's daughter, Emily, became the owner of 419 Cooper Street and a smaller house at the back of the property facing Lawrence Street. The homes continued to be rented to tenants. Camden, Philadelphia, and the World In 1880, Census takers encountered an unusually international family who rented 419 Cooper Street for at least two years (c. 1880-82): The head of household, widowed Matilda Evans, age 54, reported her birthplace as Germany. Her three adult sons and one daughter, all in their twenties, reported having been born in South America and that their father was from New York. The household also included a servant, Jane Laverty, who had been born in Ireland. Some Camden city directories identified the adult children as boarders, suggesting that 419 Cooper may have operated as boarding house during this period. From c. 1883 to 1897, a Philadelphia manufacturer of silk and wool hats, Robert S. Nickerson, resided at 419 Cooper Street with his wife Elizabeth and adult daughter Jennie Gay while commuting to his business across the river at 63 N. Second Street. The move marked a significant change for Nickerson, whose business had been operating in Philadelphia since 1836. But during the 1880s, Camden was growing rapidly and houses near the Delaware River waterfront offered attractive prices and easy access to the ferries. The sometimes-frantic nature of ferry commuting is suggested by a report in the Camden Morning Post on May 26, 1888, which described Nickerson attempting to leap onto a ferry departing from Philadelphia while clutching an umbrella and bottle of pickles. He ended up in the river, still clutching his possessions when rescued. The Nickersons, who previously lived in Philadelphia, occupied 419 Cooper longer than most other nineteenth-century occupants, almost 15 years. They typically employed one live-in domestic servant, for at least five years Annie Redgate, a daughter of Irish immigrants living elsewhere in Camden. In 1897, Jennie Gay Nickerson's wedding took place in the home. In a Society of Friends ceremony, she married Richard Albert Wills, a widowed insurance agent. Robert and Elizabeth Nickerson, then in their late 50s, moved with their daughter into Wills' home farther east in Camden, at 752 Wright Avenue, where they formed an extended family with a granddaughter born in 1899 and Wills' two older sons. Dentistry on Cooper Street When Cooper Hospital opened during the 1880s, medical professionals increasingly lived and practiced in homes on nearby Cooper Street. Among them, for more than thirty years Dr. Elmer E. Bower had his dental practice in the 400 block. Bower, a native of Berks County, established his practice in fast-growing Camden immediately after finishing dental school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1888. He and his wife Katherine raised a family in a series of three homes that also served as Elmer's dental office--419 Cooper Street, where they lived and worked between 1899-1908, was the second of the three (after <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/76" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">405</a> Cooper, 1889-1898, and before moving next door to <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/48" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">417</a>, 1908-c.1920). By the time the Bowers moved into 419 Cooper, their family had grown to three children: a son Chester, age 16, and daughters Helen, 12, and Sarah, 8. In the decade they spent at this address, the Bowers experienced both tragedy and joy. Much of the family's attention turned to the poor health of daughter Helen, whose particular illness is not known from public records. For the benefit of her health they relocated between 1904 and 1906 to more rural Hammonton, then well-known as the location of the Hammonton Sanitarium operated by Dr. James Peebles, a specialist in chronic illnesses. The move was to no avail, however. Helen Adaline Bower died in Hammonton on September 15, 1906, at the age of 20. The next family milestone occurred two years later, when the Bowers' son Chester Bertalette (his mother's maiden name) married and established his home next door to his parents, at 417 Cooper Street. The elder Bowers and their daughter Sarah soon moved there as well, creating an extended two-generation family. Elmer Bower continued his dental practice at the 417 Cooper address until he retired around 1920. A Widow's Family Home While 419 Cooper Street housed a series of renters during the nineteenth century, it passed by inheritance to the descendants of Joseph R. Paulson. Thus it offered an available refuge when <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/41" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mary A. Paulson</a>--the widow of Joseph R. Paulson's son (also named Joseph R.)--established a new home for herself and three children following the death of her husband in 1911. The family had most recently lived in Haddonfield, but before that, from 1897 to 1907, they had resided in another Paulson family property, 421 Cooper Street. When the widowed Mary Paulson returned to Camden in 1912, she generated income for her family by renting out the 421 property while living next door in 419 with her children Joseph Jr., then age 19; Charles, then 17; and daughter Ruth, 9. The Paulsons' extended family at 419 Cooper also included Emily L. Paulson, the sister of Mary's late husband, who had inherited the home as well as the smaller house behind it at 424 Lawrence Street. Born c. 1841, Emily lived much of her adult life with her mother, Mildred, and then her brother. But for at least ten years, while in her 60s c. 1900-1910, Emily had lived as a patient at the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane. The nature of her mental illness is not known from public records, but at this West Philadelphia institution she would have experienced the "moral treatment" philosophy advocated by the founder of the hospital, Quaker physician <a href="https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline14.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride</a>. Kirkbride's philosophy advocated humane treatment in beautiful surroundings, and the institution in Philadelphia inspired many other "Kirkbride Plan" hospitals around the country. In this era, causes for admission to the institution could range from grief and anxiety to severe forms of insanity. At the time of Emily's residence, the hospital's roster of patients included wives and daughters of merchants, lawyers, and other people of prominence. At age 70, Emily returned to Camden as a member of Mary Paulson's household, and the Paulsons remained at this address for the next two decades. The two teen-aged sons, both musically inclined, opened a music studio in the home to teach other young men how to play the mandolin or violin. Soon they faced more life-altering choices as the Great War began in Europe and especially when the United States entered the conflict in 1917. By then, the oldest son, Joseph Jr., still claimed 419 Cooper Street as his home address but had landed a job as an orchestra leader for a theater in Juneau, Alaska. He served as a musician in the U.S. Navy, 1918-19. His younger brother Charles served closer to home, in the quartermaster's office of the U.S. Army in Sea Girt, New Jersey, 1917-18. Both returned home to 419 Cooper Street: Charles by 1920, when the household consisted of his mother, age 54, aunt Emily, 77, and 17-year-old sister Ruth, who later became a teacher at Hatch Junior High School. Joseph returned home during the 1920s after a brief wartime marriage and later divorce. The Paulson family's association with 419 Cooper Street lasted until the 1930s. Transfer of the property from Emily to Mary Paulson for $1 in 1931 suggests that Emily had died, and by 1937 the house was up for sale. In the midst of the Great Depression, the original price of $10,000 plummeted by more than half over three years until the house finally ended up listed for sheriff's sale to satisfy back taxes. Charles Paulson made his living as a salesman and shopkeeper, married, and began his own family in Camden and later Haddonfield; by 1940, Joseph Paulson worked as a musician at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Mary Paulson, meanwhile, went to live with her by-then-married daughter Ruth Soistmann in Merchantville, ending the era of 419 Cooper Street as a single-family home. Apartments and Offices In 1940, with new owners Richard Gebbie, who owned a radio shop, and his wife Alice, a nurse, 419 Cooper Street began its transition to multi-family housing and commercial uses. While living in the home, the Gebbies rented apartments to at least two other families. By the 1950s they moved to Moorestown but retained ownership of the building until 1960 and rented to a series of office tenants, including a doctor, an attorney, and real estate agents. Brokers Mortgage Service, a mortgage company located in the nearby Wilson Building, next held title to 419 Cooper Street while renting out apartments and offices. Among the renters in the early 1960s, Rutgers student Joan Jarema made news as a finalist for sweetheart of the Kappa Sigma Upsilon fraternity. She later married another Rutgers South Jersey student, Anthony Santerlas. Real estate and legal offices continued to occupy 419 Cooper Street from the 1960s to the 1980s as the building passed from ownership of attorneys William Keown and Philip Daniels, who had their office in the building from 1965 to 1982, to a series of absentee investors. In the mid-1980s, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/member/james-florio/F000215?r=11&q=%7B%22house-committee%22%3A%22Energy+and+Commerce%22%2C%22subject%22%3A%22Finance+and+Financial+Sector%22%7D" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Congressman James J. Florio</a> had an office on the first floor. AKJ Investment, based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, sold the building to Rutgers University in 2007 for $510,000. Associated Individuals For all known occupants of 419 Cooper Street, visit the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gz3_mGk3FcNl0TPaOZAq6B1CHvOpqRcY7a99xkp_l4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cooper Street Database</a>. Research by Charlene Mires and Lucy Davis Posted by Charlene Mires Communicate corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com). Camden County Property Records. Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com). National Register for Historic Places, Cooper Street Historic District Nomination, U.S. Department of Interior. New Jersey Office of Cultural and Environmental Services Structures Surveys (1985) and Office of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office, Property Reports (2007). U.S. Census, 1850-1930; New Jersey State Census, 1885-1915; and U.S. Military Records (Ancestry.com). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 419 Cooper Street Description An account of the resource Contributing structure, Cooper Street Historic District. 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 400 Block 419 Cooper Street 424 Lawrence Street Aging Apartments Attorneys Congressional Office Death Dentists Extended Family Germany Greek Revival Grocers Haddonfield Hammonton Health and Medicine Ireland Manufacturers Mental Illness Merchantville Moorestown Musicians New York City Philadelphia Real Estate Renovations Rutgers-Camden Servants Society of Friends South America Teachers Weddings Widows World War I Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text The life of Mary Paulson, a resident of Cooper Street in the first three decades of the twentieth century, illustrates strategies employed by widows to support their families. Mary lived at 421 Cooper Street for about ten years beginning in 1897 and then after the death of her husband generated income by renting out the house while living at 419 Cooper Street next door. Her extended family included sons who joined the military during World War I, a daughter who became a school teacher, and a sister-in-law who had been in a mental institution. Mary A. Maxwell was 27 years old when she married Joseph R. Paulson, a widower 30 years her senior. Joseph, listed in public records variously as an optician, cutlery maker, and jewelry merchant in Philadelphia. They spent the first decade of their marriage in Philadelphia, but by 1897 moved to 421 Cooper Street, which Joseph may have inherited from his mother, Mildred Keen Paulson, after her death in 1875. By the 1900 Census, the household consisted of Joseph, age 64; Mary, age 34; their sons Joseph Jr., age 6, and Charles, age 5, and a housekeeper, 55-year-old Clara Brewer. By 1905, Brewer's place had been taken by 21-year-old Rachel Ball, an African American who like many others in the early twentieth century had migrated north from Virginia. The family also added a daughter, Ruth, born in 1902. The Paulsons lived at 421 Cooper Street for at least a decade and then, by 1910, made another move to the more fashionable suburb of Haddonfield. Still, they retained ownership of 421 Cooper Street. In 1911, when Joseph died, the family's former home became a source of financial security for Mary and her children. Mary rented out 421 Cooper Street to other families while living next door in 419 with her children Joseph Jr., by then then age 19; Charles, then 17; and daughter Ruth, 9. For almost a decade, her tenants in 421 were members of another extended family headed by a widow, Clara Starn, until that family moved in 1920 to Merchantville. The Paulsons' extended family at 419 Cooper included Emily L. Paulson, the sister of Mary's late husband, who had inherited the home as well as the smaller house behind it at 424 Lawrence Street. Born c. 1841, Emily lived much of her adult life with her mother, Mildred, and then her brother. But for at least ten years, while in her 60s c. 1900-1910, Emily had lived as a patient at the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane. The nature of her mental illness is not known from public records, but at this West Philadelphia institution she would have experienced the "moral treatment" philosophy advocated by the founder of the hospital, Quaker physician <a href="https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1801/tline14.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride</a>. Kirkbride advocated humane treatment in beautiful surroundings, and the institution in Philadelphia inspired many other "Kirkbride Plan" hospitals around the country. In this era, causes for admission to the institution could range from grief and anxiety to severe forms of insanity. At the time of Emily's residence, the hospital's roster of patients included wives and daughters of merchants, lawyers, and other people of prominence. At age 70, Emily returned to Camden as a member of Mary Paulson's household, and the Paulsons remained at this address for the next two decades. The two teen-aged sons, both musically inclined, opened a music studio in the home to teach other young men how to play the mandolin or violin. Soon they faced more life-altering choices as the Great War began in Europe and especially when the United States entered the conflict in 1917. By then, the oldest son, Joseph Jr., still claimed 419 Cooper Street as his home address but had landed a job as an orchestra leader for a theater in Juneau, Alaska. He served as a musician in the U.S. Navy, 1918-19. His younger brother Charles served closer to home, in the quartermaster's office of the U.S. Army in Sea Girt, New Jersey, 1917-18. Both returned home to 419 Cooper Street: Charles by 1920, when the household consisted of his mother, age 54, aunt Emily, 77, and 17-year-old sister Ruth, who later became a teacher at Hatch Junior High School. Joseph returned home during the 1920s after a brief wartime marriage and later divorce. Mary Paulson retained ownership of 421 Cooper Street as a rental property until 1925, a time when changes such as construction of the Delaware River Bridge spurred investor interest in Cooper Street properties for possible conversion to business uses. The sale of 421 Cooper Street that year warranted a story in the Camden Courier-Post to note that the property had been in the hands of only two families--the Paulsons and the Coopers--since Camden's earliest history. The Paulson family's association with 419 Cooper Street lasted until the 1930s. Transfer of the property from Emily to Mary Paulson for $1 in 1931 suggests that Emily had died, and by 1937 the house was up for sale. In the midst of the Great Depression, the original price of $10,000 plummeted by more than half over three years until the house finally ended up listed for sheriff's sale to satisfy back taxes. Charles Paulson made his living as a salesman and shopkeeper, married, and began his own family in Camden and later Haddonfield; by 1940, Joseph Paulson worked as a musician at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Mary Paulson, meanwhile, went to live with her by-then-married daughter Ruth Soistmann in Merchantville, ending the era of 419 Cooper Street as a single-family home. Time period on Cooper Street 1897-1930s Location(s) - Cooper Street 419 Cooper Street 421 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Philadelphia 124 Walnut Street, Haddonfield Merchantville Occupation Head of household Birth Date September 1865 Birthplace Pennsylvania Death Date Unknown, after 1940 Associated Individuals Joseph R. Paulson (1826-1911), husband Joseph R. Paulson Jr., son Charles Paulson, son Ruth Paulson Soistmann, daughter Emily L. Paulson, sister-in-law Clara Starn, tenant Clara Brewer, housekeeper Rachel Ball, housekeeper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paulson, Mary A. Description An account of the resource Mary A. Paulson, a widow, generated income to support her family by renting out one Cooper Street house while living in another house next door. 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 419 Cooper Street 421 Cooper Street 424 Lawrence Street Extended Family Haddonfield Merchantville Philadelphia Widows World War I https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/d83d7da564b69b0552c4f907305baa31.png 577e7df0a996c98d99907c0db535fb63 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Documents Document Date 1897 Location(s) - Cooper Street 419 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 63 N. Second Street, Philadelphia Associated Individuals Robert S. Nickerson Description During the 1880s and 1890s a Philadelphia manufacturer of silk and wool hats, Robert S. Nickerson, resided at 419 Cooper Street with his wife Elizabeth and adult daughter Jennie Gay while commuting to his business across the river at 63 N. Second Street. The move marked a significant change for Nickerson, whose business had been operating in Philadelphia since 1836. But during the 1880s, Camden was growing rapidly and houses near the Delaware River waterfront offered attractive prices and easy access to the ferries. The sometimes-frantic nature of ferry commuting is suggested by a report in the Camden Morning Post on May 26, 1888, which described Nickerson attempting to leap onto a ferry departing from Philadelphia while clutching an umbrella and bottle of pickles. He ended up in the river, still clutching his possessions when rescued. This advertisement was published in the trade magazine The American Hatter in August 1897, around the time the Nickersons moved from Cooper Street to another Camden address. The ad documents the duration of the Nickerson business, since 1836, and its production of silk and cassimere (wool) hats. Sources The American Hatter, Vol. 27 (August 1897), p. 62. Google Books. Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Advertisement, Nickerson & Bro. Hats (1897) 1890s 400 Block 419 Cooper Street Advertising Manufacturers Philadelphia