5 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Blocks Adjacent to Cooper Street, 1839-1860 (before house numbering) Description An account of the resource Data about residents in blocks immediately adjacent to Cooper Street in Camden, New Jersey. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Philadelphia city directories (Camden listings) and the U.S. and New Jersey censuses. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1839-1860. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Charlene Mires Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Google Sheets database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fsFKceqwyg_TUVgFN3zNCITA5YFgQB90s1j7UY9DBHg/edit?usp=sharing">Link here to view</a>. 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Lawrence Street by Block, 1854-1860 (before house numbering) Description An account of the resource Data about residents on Lawrence Street in Camden, New Jersey. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Philadelphia city directories (Camden listings) and the U.S. and New Jersey censuses. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1854-1860. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Charlene Mires. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Google Sheets database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cI-_IVB-ei-no50oQzzTn36wz6gTgtHiIXCxq8_s9Rw/edit?usp=sharing">Link here to view</a>. Relation A related resource For later years also see <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/15">Lawrence Street Residents Database</a>. https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/a3a3b6f3194ecfe7f7262f659caaaf9b.jpg 1efe517cfc1070d84e1202f600d99678 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/6c2ee2ef0a428df7624427f289f6129e.jpg 86f7e131e28d58792ad78e403829f44f 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. Illustrations 527 Cooper Street in 1890, The Inland Architect and News Record. (Courtesy, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, the Art Institute of Chicago) 527 Cooper Street in 2019. (Photograph by Jacob Lechner) Significance 527 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. Its designers, <a href="https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/22158" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hazlehurst & Huckel</a> of Philadelphia, are named in National Register documentation as among the architects whose work warranted designating the district based on its distinctive architecture. The building also illustrates the district’s significance in representing broad patterns of American history. As stated in the National Register nomination: “The buildings within the district include Camden’s best remaining examples of Federal houses and its most intact examples of nineteenth-century houses as well as important office and bank buildings of more recent vintage. These buildings demonstrate the street’s change from residential and professional to commercial.” During the 1920s, the building housed offices of real estate agents and a builder who played important roles in that transition. The building also has a notable history associated with individuals prominent in industry and government, their families, and domestic workers whose histories reflect patterns of immigration and African American migration. Architectural style Queen Anne. Documentation prepared in 1980 by J.P. Graham of the Division of Planning, City of Camden, stated: “Although altered the house preserves an element characteristic to residential construction on Cooper St. in the last decade of the Nineteenth Century. It is also one of the few Queen Anne buildings remaining in the Central Business District of Camden.” Date of construction 1889 History In 1889, an officer of the Anderson Preserving Company in Camden commissioned the Queen Anne-style home at 527 Cooper Street. Like other new homes on Cooper Street during the 1880s and 1890s, it likely replaced an earlier, less elaborate brick row house. The construction of the new home occurred as Camden grew in size and stature, and as Cooper Street became an increasingly fashionable address. The character of the street changed in the early 1880s when curbs were moved toward the center of the street by twelve feet on each side, which gave homeowners space to create a boulevard of homes fronted by porches, front yards, and gardens. Industry and Architects Abraham Anderson, a partner with the founder of Campbell’s Soup before forming his own firm, lived at 232 Cooper when he bought the 527 Cooper Street property up the street in 1885. Four years later, he sold 527 to his daughter, Ella A. Cox, who with her husband, John, newborn daughter Martha, and domestic servants became the first residents of a new house built on the lot in 1889. To design the new home, John T. Cox (secretary-treasurer of his father-in-law’s company) commissioned <a href="In%201889,%20an%20officer%20of%20the%20Anderson%20Preserving%20Company%20in%20Camden%20commissioned%20the%20Queen%20Anne-style%20home%20at%20527%20Cooper%20Street.%20Like%20other%20new%20homes%20on%20Cooper%20Street%20during%20the%201880s%20and%201890s,%20it%20likely%20replaced%20an%20earlier,%20less%20elaborate%20brick%20row%20house.%20As%20Camden%20grew%20in%20size%20and%20stature,%20Cooper%20Street%20became%20an%20increasingly%20fashionable%20address.%20Its%20character%20changed%20in%20the%20early%201880s%20when%20curbs%20were%20moved%20toward%20the%20center%20of%20the%20street%20by%20twelve%20feet%20on%20each%20side,%20which%20gave%20homeowners%20space%20to%20create%20a%20boulevard%20of%20homes%20fronted%20by%20porches,%20front%20%20yards,%20and%20gardens.%20Industry%20and%20Architects%20Abraham%20Anderson,%20a%20partner%20with%20the%20founder%20of%20Campbell%E2%80%99s%20Soup%20before%20forming%20his%20own%20firm,%20lived%20at%20232%20Cooper%20when%20he%20bought%20the%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20property%20up%20the%20street%20in%201885.%20Four%20years%20later,%20he%20sold%20527%20to%20his%20daughter,%20Ella%20A.%20Cox,%20who%20with%20her%20husband,%20John,%20newborn%20daughter%20Martha,%20and%20domestic%20servants%20became%20the%20first%20residents%20of%20a%20new%20house%20built%20on%20the%20lot%20in%201889.%20To%20design%20the%20new%20home,%20John%20T.%20Cox%20(secretary-treasurer%20of%20his%20father-in-law%E2%80%99s%20company)%20commissioned%20Hazlehurst%20&%20Huckel,%20a%20Philadelphia%20firm%20known%20for%20residential,%20church,%20and%20commercial%20architecture.%20The%20firm%20had%20recently%20completed%20another%20Queen%20Anne-style%20home%20at%20323%20Cooper%20Street,%20within%20view%20of%20the%20Anderson%20residence%20at%20Second%20and%20Cooper.%20One%20of%20the%20partners,%20Edward%20P.%20Hazlehurst,%20had%20worked%20with%20one%20of%20Philadelphia%E2%80%99s%20best-known%20architects,%20Frank%20Furness,%20before%20starting%20his%20own%20firm%20with%20Samuel%20Huckel%20Jr.%20in%201881.%20The%20stature%20of%20the%20partners%20had%20grown%20in%201887,%20when%20they%20won%20a%20competition%20to%20design%20the%20Manufacturer%E2%80%99s%20Club%20prominently%20located%20at%20Broad%20and%20Walnut%20Streets%20in%20Philadelphia;%20later%20Huckel,%20individually%20won%20the%20commission%20to%20remodel%20Grand%20Central%20Station%20in%20New%20York.%20In%20the%20300%20and%20500%20blocks%20of%20Cooper%20Street,%20the%20two%20Hazlehurst%20&%20Huckel%20houses%20stood%20distinctively%20among%20the%20earlier%20generation%20of%20red-brick%20rowhouses%20built%20in%20the%201850s.%20They%20celebrated%20individuality%20in%20their%20varieties%20of%20materials%20and%20departures%20from%20symmetry,%20and%20they%20punctured%20the%20typical%20flat%20fa%C3%A7ade%20of%20earlier%20rowhouses%20by%20featuring%20bay%20windows%20and%20dormers.%20The%20house%20at%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20earned%20a%20full-page%20photograph%20in%20The%20Inland%20Architect%20and%20News%20Record,%20a%20monthly%20trade%20journal%20published%20in%20Chicago.%20The%20Cox%20family%20lived%20at%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20until%201897,%20when%20they%20followed%20the%20trend%20of%20other%20Camden%20elites%20by%20moving%20to%20more%20pastoral%20suburbs%20(Moorestown).%20While%20on%20Cooper%20Street,%20their%20household%20included%20at%20least%20two%20domestic%20servants,%20at%20least%20one%20of%20them%20an%20Irish%20immigrant.%20Prestige%20Rental%20The%20Cox%20family%20sold%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20to%20a%20real%20estate%20firm,%20opening%20a%20period%20of%20more%20than%20two%20decades%20when%20the%20home%20was%20leased%20to%20a%20series%20of%20high-profile%20tenants.%20These%20included%20four%20division%20managers%20for%20the%20Pennsylvania%20Railroad%E2%80%99s%20Amboy%20Division%20(formerly%20the%20Camden%20and%20Amboy%20Railroad).%20Among%20the%20most%20notable%20residents%20of%20527%20Cooper%20during%20these%20early%20years%20of%20the%20twentieth%20century,%20future%20New%20Jersey%20Supreme%20Court%20Justice%20Frank%20T.%20Lloyd%20Sr.%20lived%20at%20this%20address%20between%201908%20and%201918.%20Lloyd%20had%20lived%20in%20Camden%20since%201875,%20when%20he%20arrived%20from%20Delaware%20to%20work%20as%20a%20compositor%20for%20the%20West%20Jersey%20Press%20newspaper.%20He%20became%20a%20lawyer%20by%20studying%20with%20Philadelphia%20attorneys%20and%20maintained%20a%20Philadelphia%20law%20office.%20Elected%20to%20the%20New%20Jersey%20Assembly%20for%20the%20term%201896-97,%20Lloyd%20began%20a%20career%20of%20public%20service%20marked%20by%20combatting%20vice%20and%20upholding%20morality%20in%20his%20posts%20as%20legislator,%20Camden%20County%20Prosecutor,%20and%20Circuit%20Court%20Judge.%20In%20the%20Assembly,%20he%20wrote%20a%20new%20marriage%20law%20that%20ended%20Camden%E2%80%99s%20reputation%20as%20a%20place%20for%20quick%20get-away%20marriages%20by%20requiring%20a%20three-day%20wait%20after%20obtaining%20a%20marriage%20license.%20As%20a%20prosecutor,%20he%20took%20aim%20at%20illegal%20gambling,%20particularly%20at%20racetracks.%20The%20extended%20Lloyd%20family%20at%20527%20Cooper%20is%20glimpsed%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Census%20in%201910,%20during%20Frank%20Sr.%E2%80%99s%20service%20as%20Circuit%20Court%20Judge.%20Lloyd,%20then%2050%20years%20old,%20headed%20the%20family%20with%20his%20wife,%20Mary,%20age%2043;%20Mary%E2%80%99s%20older%20sister%20Sophia%20Pelouze,%2050%20years%20old%20and%20single,%20identified%20herself%20to%20the%20Census-taker%20as%20a%20%E2%80%9Ccompanion.%E2%80%9D%20The%20Lloyds,%20who%20had%20been%20married%2023%20years,%20had%20three%20children%20ranging%20in%20age%20from%2010%20to%2022.%20The%20domestic%20workers%20in%20the%20Lloyd%20household%20added%20not%20only%20their%20labor%20but%20also%20ethnic%20and%20racial%20diversity,%20as%20in%20many%20other%20Cooper%20Street%20households.%20Katie%20Tellus,%2031%20years%20old,%20immigrated%20to%20the%20United%20States%20from%20Bavaria%20(Austria)%20%E2%80%93%20a%20rarity%20among%20Cooper%20Street%20servants,%20who%20typically%20came%20from%20Ireland.%20A%20widow,%20she%20could%20not%20read%20or%20write.%20The%20Lloyds%20also%20employed%20James%20R.%20Taylor,%20a%2035-year-old%20Black%20man%20described%20in%20the%20Census%20as%20a%20butler%20but%20listed%20in%20later%20city%20directories%20as%20a%20cook.%20Taylor,%20born%20in%20either%20Maryland%20or%20Virginia%20(sources%20vary),%20was%20among%20southern%20African%20Americans%20who%20migrated%20to%20Camden%20and%20other%20northern%20cities%20in%20search%20of%20opportunity%20and%20an%20escape%20from%20repression%20and%20violence.%20Taylor%20displayed%20his%20aspirations,%20and%20perhaps%20his%20dissatisfaction%20with%20housework,%20in%20a%20series%20of%20classified%20ads%20in%201912.%20In%20the%20Situations%20Wanted%20column%20of%20the%20Courier-Post%20he%20advertised,%20%E2%80%9CYoung%20colored%20boy%20from%20South%20wishes%20position%20of%20any%20kind%E2%80%9D%20and%20%E2%80%9CSouthern%20colored%20boy%20wants%20position%20driving%20for%20doctor.%E2%80%9D%20His%20self-description%20as%20a%20%E2%80%9Cyoung%20colored%20boy,%E2%80%9D%20despite%20being%20a%20man%20in%20his%2030s,%20suggests%20the%20racial%20biases%20present%20in%20the%20South%20Jersey/Philadelphia%20region%20during%20the%20migration%20era.%20The%20Lloyds%E2%80%99%20occupancy%20at%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20encompassed%20the%20period%20of%20the%20First%20World%20War.%20Frank%20Sr.%20served%20on%20the%20home%20front%20as%20a%20federal%20food%20administrator%20while%20son%20Frank%20Jr.%20deployed%20to%20France.%20While%20in%20command%20of%20an%20aerial%20testing%20camp%20near%20Paris,%20Lieutenant%20Lloyd%20suffered%20a%20fall%20that%20resulted%20in%20broken%20jaw%20and%20two%20days%20of%20unconsciousness.%20The%20Philadelphia%20Inquirer%E2%80%99s%20lists%20of%20soldiers%20killed%20and%20injured%20identified%20the%20younger%20Lloyd%20as%20%E2%80%9Cwounded%20severely.%E2%80%9D%20After%20their%20years%20on%20Cooper%20Street,%20the%20Lloyd%20family%20moved%20to%20Pennsauken.%20Frank%20Lloyd%20Sr.,%20appointed%20to%20the%20New%20Jersey%20Supreme%20Court%20in%201924,%20lived%20until%201951.%20An%20editorial%20in%20the%20Courier-Post%20eulogized%20him%20as%20%E2%80%9Ca%20citizen%20who%20never%20will%20be%20forgotten,%20one%20whose%20life%20and%20character%20have%20been%20and%20will%20continue%20to%20be%20an%20inspiration.%E2%80%9D%20Block-Busting%20on%20Cooper%20Street%20During%20the%201920s,%20construction%20of%20the%20Delaware%20River%20Bridge%20(the%20Benjamin%20Franklin%20Bridge)%20between%20Camden%20and%20Philadelphia%20propelled%20a%20spirit%20of%20boosterism%20with%20profound%20implications%20for%20Cooper%20Street.%20The%20location%20of%20the%20bridge,%20and%20the%20extension%20of%20Broadway%20to%20reach%20it,%20created%20a%20new%20focal%20point%20for%20business%20activity%20at%20Sixth%20and%20Cooper,%20adjacent%20to%20527%20Cooper%20Street.%20As%20real%20estate%20interests%20eyed%20the%20rest%20of%20Cooper%20Street%20as%20an%20opportunity%20to%20convert%20older%20homes%20into%20apartments%20and%20businesses,%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20became%20a%20base%20for%20their%20efforts%20to%20transform%20Cooper%20Street%20into%20a%20New%20York-style%20%E2%80%9CFifth%20Avenue.%E2%80%9D%20Several%20women%20emerged%20as%20real%20estate%20entrepreneurs%20during%20these%20years,%20among%20them%20a%20new%20owner%20of%20527%20Cooper%20Street,%20Julia%20M.%20Carey.%20By%20the%20time%20the%20bridge%20opened%20in%201926,%20the%20%E2%80%9CCarey%20Building%E2%80%9D%20at%20527%20Cooper%20offered%20office%20suites%20and%20apartments.%20Carey%20leased%20one%20of%20the%20offices%20to%20another%20real%20estate%20dealer,%20Emma%20M.%20Asay,%20whose%20gender-neutral%20advertising%20invited%20prospective%20buyers%20to%20contact%20%E2%80%9CE.M.%20Asay.%E2%80%9D%20The%20Courier-Post%20noted%20in%201926,%20%E2%80%9CMiss%20Carey%20and%20Miss%20E.M.%20Asay%20have%20found%20Cooper%20street%20an%20advantageous%20location,%20as%20both%20of%20these%20%E2%80%98lady%20real%20estators%E2%80%99%20have%20had%20two%20splendid%20selling%20seasons%20on%20Camden%E2%80%99s%20famous%20residential%20thoroughfare,%20now%20giving%20way%20to%20business.%E2%80%9D%20Carey%E2%80%99s%20work%20on%20the%20street%20included%20three%20strategically%20located%20renovations,%20one%20per%20block,%20to%20convert%20321,%20421,%20and%20521%20Cooper%20into%20offices%20or%20apartments.%20She%20often%20collaborated%20with%20contractor%20John%20C.%20Gibson,%20also%20based%20at%20527%20Cooper%20while%20he%20worked%20on%20conversions%20and%20new%20construction%20up%20and%20down%20the%20street.%20For%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20twentieth%20century%20and%20into%20the%20twenty-first%20century,%20527%20Cooper%20served%20a%20variety%20of%20business%20and%20professional%20uses,%20including%20offices%20for%20doctors,%20lawyers,%20real%20estate%20agents,%20and%20title%20companies.%20For%20three%20years%20in%20the%201950s,%20the%20building%20served%20as%20headquarters%20for%20the%20Camden%20County%20Republican%20Party.%20By%201980,%20when%20the%20Camden%20Division%20of%20Planning%20surveyed%20Cooper%20Street%E2%80%99s%20historic%20structures,%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20had%20lost%20some%20%E2%80%93%20but%20by%20no%20means%20all%20%E2%80%93%20of%20its%20architectural%20character.%20%E2%80%9CIn%20spite%20of%20alterations%20to%20the%20entrance%20way%20and%20the%20removal%20of%20the%20second-story%20oriel%20that%20once%20occupied%20the%20left%20bay,%E2%80%9D%20surveyor%20J.P.%20Graham%20wrote,%20%E2%80%9Cthis%20house%20still%20conveys%20much%20of%20the%20feeling%20of%20the%20Queen%20Anne%20style.%E2%80%9D%20In%202016,%20LEAP%20Academy%20University%20Charter%20School%20Inc.%20acquired%20527%20Cooper%20Street%20from%20Thomas%20DeMarco%20Holdings,%20LLC,%20of%20Cherry%20Hill,%20for%20$310,000." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hazlehurst & Huckel</a>, a Philadelphia firm known for residential, church, and commercial architecture. The firm had recently completed another Queen Anne-style home at 323 Cooper Street, within view of the Anderson residence at Second and Cooper. One of the partners, Edward P. Hazlehurst, had worked with one of Philadelphia’s best-known architects, Frank Furness, before starting his own firm with Samuel Huckel Jr. in 1881. The stature of the partners had grown in 1887, when they won a competition to design the Manufacturer’s Club prominently located at Broad and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia; later, Huckel individually won the commission to remodel Grand Central Station in New York. In the 300 and 500 blocks of Cooper Street, the two Hazlehurst & Huckel houses stood distinctively among the earlier generation of red-brick row houses built in the 1850s. They celebrated individuality in their varieties of materials and departures from symmetry, and they punctured the typical flat façade of earlier row houses by featuring bay windows and dormers. The house at 527 Cooper Street earned a full-page photograph in <a href="https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/id/7299/rec/5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Inland Architect and News Record</a>, a monthly trade journal published in Chicago. (In 1894 the journal accorded the same treatment to the Henry Genet Taylor home at <a href="https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/id/8152/rec/13" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">305 Cooper Street</a>, designed by Wilson Eyre Jr.) The Cox family lived at 527 Cooper Street until 1897, when they followed the trend of other Camden elites by moving to more pastoral suburbs (Moorestown). While on Cooper Street, their household included at least two domestic servants, at least one of them an Irish immigrant. Prestige Rental The Cox family sold 527 Cooper Street to a real estate firm, opening a period of more than two decades when the home was leased to a series of high-profile tenants. These included four division managers for the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Amboy Division (formerly the <a href="https://www.delawareriverheritagetrail.org/Camden-and-Amboy-Railroad.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Camden and Amboy Railroad</a>). Among the most notable residents of 527 Cooper during these early years of the twentieth century, future New Jersey Supreme Court Justice <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/people/camdenpeople-judgefranktlloyd.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frank T. Lloyd Sr.</a> lived at this address between 1908 and 1918. Lloyd had lived in Camden since 1875, when he arrived from Delaware to work as a compositor for the West Jersey Press newspaper. He became a lawyer by studying with Philadelphia attorneys and maintained a Philadelphia law office. Elected to the New Jersey Assembly for the term 1896-97, Lloyd began a career of public service marked by combatting vice and upholding morality in his posts as legislator, Camden County Prosecutor, and Circuit Court Judge. In the Assembly, he wrote a new marriage law that ended Camden’s reputation as a place for quick get-away marriages by requiring a three-day wait after obtaining a marriage license. As a prosecutor, he took aim at illegal gambling, particularly at racetracks. The extended Lloyd family at 527 Cooper is glimpsed in the U.S. Census in 1910, during Frank Sr.’s service as Circuit Court Judge. Lloyd, then 50 years old, headed the family with his wife, Mary, age 43; Mary’s older sister Sophia Pelouze, 50 years old and single, identified herself to the Census-taker as a “companion.” The Lloyds, who had been married 23 years, had three children ranging in age from 10 to 22. The domestic workers in the Lloyd household added not only their labor but also ethnic and racial diversity, as in many other Cooper Street households. Katie Tellus, 31 years old, immigrated to the United States from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Bavaria" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bavaria</a> – a rarity among Cooper Street servants, who typically came from Ireland. A widow, she could not read or write. The Lloyds also employed James R. Taylor, a 35-year-old Black man described in the Census as a butler but listed in later city directories as a cook. Taylor, born in either Maryland or Virginia (sources vary), was among <a href="https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/020/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">southern African Americans who migrated</a> to Camden and other northern cities in search of opportunity and an escape from repression and violence. Taylor displayed his aspirations, and perhaps his dissatisfaction with housework, in a series of classified ads in 1912. In the Situations Wanted column of the Camden Courier-Post he advertised, “Young colored boy from South wishes position of any kind” and “Southern colored boy wants position driving for doctor.” His self-description as a “young colored boy,” despite being a man in his 30s, suggests the racial biases present in the South Jersey/Philadelphia region during the migration era. The Lloyds’ occupancy at 527 Cooper Street encompassed the period of the First World War. Frank Sr. served on the home front as a federal food administrator while son Frank Jr. deployed to France. While in command of an aerial testing camp near Paris, Lieutenant Lloyd suffered a fall that resulted in broken jaw and two days of unconsciousness. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s lists of soldiers killed and injured identified the younger Lloyd as “wounded severely.” After their years on Cooper Street, the Lloyd family moved to Pennsauken. Frank Lloyd Sr., appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1924, lived until 1951. An editorial in the Courier-Post eulogized him as “a citizen who never will be forgotten, one whose life and character have been and will continue to be an inspiration.” Block-Busting on Cooper Street During the 1920s, construction of the Delaware River Bridge (the Benjamin Franklin Bridge) between Camden and Philadelphia propelled a spirit of boosterism with profound implications for Cooper Street. The location of the bridge, and the extension of Broadway to reach it, created a new focal point for business activity at Sixth and Cooper, adjacent to 527 Cooper Street. As real estate interests eyed the rest of Cooper Street as an opportunity to convert older homes into apartments and businesses, 527 Cooper Street became a base for their efforts to transform Cooper Street into a New York-style “Fifth Avenue.” Several women emerged as real estate entrepreneurs during these years, among them a new owner of 527 Cooper Street, Julia M. Carey. By the time the bridge opened in 1926, the “Carey Building” at 527 Cooper offered office suites and apartments. Carey leased one of the offices to another real estate dealer, Emma M. Asay, whose gender-neutral advertising invited prospective buyers to contact “E.M. Asay.” The Courier-Post noted in 1926, “Miss Carey and Miss E.M. Asay have found Cooper street an advantageous location, as both of these ‘lady real estators’ have had two splendid selling seasons on Camden’s famous residential thoroughfare, now giving way to business.” Carey’s woThe 1 Cooper into offices or apartments. She often collaborated with contractor John C. Gibson, also based at 527 Cooper while he worked on conversions and new construction up and down the street. For the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, 527 Cooper served a variety of business and professional uses, including offices for doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, and title companies. For three years in the early 1950s, the building served as headquarters for the Camden County Republican Party. By 1980, when the Camden Division of Planning surveyed Cooper Street’s historic structures, 527 Cooper Street had lost some – but by no means all – of its architectural character. “In spite of alterations to the entrance way and the removal of the second-story oriel that once occupied the left bay,” surveyor J.P. Graham wrote, “this house still conveys much of the feeling of the Queen Anne style.” In 2016, LEAP Academy University Charter School Inc. acquired 527 Cooper Street from Thomas DeMarco Holdings, LLC, of Cherry Hill, for $310,000. Although a contributing structure of the Cooper Street Historic District, the house was demolished in 2024. 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 527. Associated architects/builders Edward P. Hazlehurst Samuel Huckel Jr. Sources Camden and Philadelphia newspapers (Newspapers.com) Camden City Directories (Camden County Historical Society, Ancestry.com) Camden County Property Records Cooper Street Historic District, National Register Nomination, U.S. Department of Interior. Inland Architect and News Record, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, the Art Institute of Chicago Manuals of the Legislature of New Jersey, 1896-97 Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project, Athenaeum of Philadelphia Structures Survey, 527 Cooper Street, New Jersey Office of Cultural and Environmental Services U.S. and New Jersey Censuses (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires, Lucy Davis, and Nick Prehn. Thanks to Benjamin Saracco for assistance locating Manuals for the Legislature of New Jersey. Posted by Charlene Mires Please communicate 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 527 Cooper Street Description An account of the resource Contributing structure, Cooper Street Historic District. 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 500 Block 527 Cooper Street Bavaria Black Migration Bridge Impact Delaware Domestic Life Extended Family Food Industry Hazlehurst & Huckel Immigration Ireland Maryland Moorestown Pennsauken Philadelphia Public Officials Queen Anne Railroad Executives Real Estate Renovations Servants Virginia 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Cooper Street Domestic Workers Database Description An account of the resource Data about domestic workers on Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Camden, N.J., City Directories; U.S. and New Jersey Census; Camden newspapers. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource c. 1850-1940 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Charlene Mires, Lucy Davis, and students at Rutgers-Camden. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Google Sheets database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QTGRqmoC110Mr7I2nO9aPjjBZC0UTSJ5Rx0zF_Y2b4A/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Link here to view</a>. 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 While living in a rowhouse apartment at 229 Cooper Street, Michael Giocondo joined others in the Catholic Left in an act of civil disobedience against the Vietnam War. The "Camden 28," as they came to be known, were caught in the act of breaking into the draft board office in the federal building at Fourth and Market Streets to destroy and steal draft records. Their action and subsequent trial made national news and inspired a documentary film. Giocondo, a Franciscan friar who had been teaching English in Costa Rica, came to Camden in the early 1970s to work with a parish in the city's Puerto Rican community. He left the Franciscan order, but stayed in Camden and founded El Centro, a social service agency, and trained to be a substance abuse counselor. The 1971 break-in at the draft office in Camden was one among many similar actions across the United States that aimed to disrupt the draft and question the justice and morality of the Vietnam War. Giocondo played a fateful role in the local break-in when he invited a friend, Robert Hardy, to join the planning group. In addition to aiding the planning, Hardy became an informant for the FBI, leading to the arrests and charges against 28 people allegedly involved. Seventeen of the defendants, including Giocondo, went to trial at the Camden federal building in 1973. Testimony called the Vietnam War into question, and the defendants argued that the federal government had over-reached with its informant's active role in staging the break-in. The judge instructed the jury that acquittals could be granted on the basis of governmental over-reach, and the jury concurred by finding all of the defendants not guilty. The New York Times described the verdict as "the first total legal victory for the antiwar movement in five years of such draft-record incidents." Following the trial, charges were dropped against the remaining members of the Camden 28. Giocondo left Camden after the trial and later worked as a journalist covering the labor movement in New York and Chicago. He returned to the city for a reunion with the Camden 28 filmed for the documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808190/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Camden 28</a> (2007). He retired to Florida, where <a href="https://peoplesworld.org/article/mike-giocondo-85-fighter-for-justice-at-home-and-abroad/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he died in 2014</a>. The rowhouse where he lived in the 1970s stood at the northwest corner of Third and Cooper, now a parking lot for Rutgers-Camden dormitories. Time period on Cooper Street Early 1970s Location(s) - Cooper Street 229 Cooper Street (northwest corner, Third and Cooper) Location(s) - Other Federal Building, Fourth and Market Streets Birth Date c. 1929 Birthplace Syracuse, New York Death Date 2014, in Jacksonville, Florida Sources The Camden 28, dir. Anthony Giacchino. (Available to view on YouTube: <a href="https://youtu.be/EcdWk74LQdw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">click here</a>.) Camden 28 Documents: <a href="http://www.camden28.org/master.html?http://www.camden28.org/thestory.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">click here</a>. "<a href="https://peoplesworld.org/article/mike-giocondo-85-fighter-for-justice-at-home-and-abroad/">Mike Giocondo, 85: Fighter for Justice at Home and Abroad</a>." People's World, April 23, 2014. News coverage of the Camden 28 in Camden and Philadelphia and the New York Times. Research by Charlene Mires 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 Giocondo, Michael Description An account of the resource During the Vietnam War era, Michael Giocondo participated in the "Camden 28" raid on draft board headquarters. 1970s 200 Block 229 Cooper Street Activism Adult Catholics Male Social Justice Vietnam https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/7b1319df32ee089e1c2ecb2bd4873ab7.jpg 231c13634bdc4f7d74e7da3804b92858 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. Illustrations Photograph by Jacob Lechner, 2019 Significance The Helene Apartments, opened in 1913, introduced luxury apartment living to Camden and encouraged a vision of Cooper Street as a potential high-style, Fifth Avenue-type rental district. Built by an Irish immigrant who became an important local real estate developer, the building later called the Castle Apartments is a contributing structure of the Cooper Street Historic District. Architectural style Romanesque Revival Date of construction 1912 (opened 1913) Associated Individuals For a list of all known residents and owners, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gz3_mGk3FcNl0TPaOZAq6B1CHvOpqRcY7a99xkp_l4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the Cooper Street Database</a> and scroll to 232. Research by Charlene Mires and Lucy Davis Posted by Charlene Mires Send corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu History When the Helene Apartments opened at Third and Cooper Streets in 1913, the four-story granite structure reflected tradition on Cooper Street by emulating the bulk and imposing stone facades of some of the avenue's finest mansions. At the same time, it introduced a new mode of living to Cooper Street and Camden: rental apartments created especially for the upper class. "Nothing has been spared to make the apartments attractive to the most discriminating classes," promised the builder of the Helene, Patrick J. Farley, who razed his own house at Third and Cooper to clear the site for the new building. Farley, an Irish immigrant, had already made his mark in Camden as one of the developers of <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/CamdenNJ-Parkside.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Parkside</a>, the streetcar suburb near the Cooper River completed in the first years of the twentieth century. While he remained president of the Parkside Land Company, he moved to Cooper Street in 1905. The home he purchased at Third and Cooper was a three-story brick structure that local newspapers described as a mansion; it had last belonged to one of the co-founders of the Campbell Soup Company, Abraham Anderson. The double lot had a lineage extending to the earliest development of Camden city, having been purchased by a lumber man, Isaac Wilkins, in 1814 and passed to his heirs. While Farley and his partners promoted affordable home ownership in the twin homes of "Beautiful Parkside," the Helene Apartments beckoned well-to-do homeowners to consider letting go of their homes in favor of rental apartments. To signal the desirability of the Helene, Farley set the rents as high as or higher than any being asked for a house in Camden: $60 to $75 a month. He provided amenities to appeal to a class of tenant accustomed to having servants: six maid's rooms in the basement, for example, and a steam-powered drier to speed the work of the "wash woman." The Helene had its front door on Cooper Street, where visitors could call on telephones to be let into the interior white marble and tile hallways. Deliveries came to the back of the building, where butchers, bakers, or other suppliers had access to a push-button directory to alert residents of their arrival. They could then proceed up the brick-enclosed iron stairways on the west side of the building, which afforded access to every floor. The stairways doubled as fire escapes--"the safest in the state," the builder proclaimed. In its original configuration, the Helene offered seventeen apartments, each consisting of four rooms, bath, and kitchen, extending across the width of the building with views across the back yards of Cooper Street houses toward the manufacturing complex of the Victor Talking Machine Company. The presence of the apartment house at Third and Cooper foreshadowed further transformation in the 200 and 300 block of Cooper Street. During the 1920s, as Victor expanded at the east end of Cooper Street and the Walt Whitman Hotel took the place of older mansions to the west, some Camden boosters envisioned Cooper Street as a local version of New York's Fifth Avenue. Apartment buildings fit that vision, and soon the Helene's neighbors included the Chalcar Apartments (220 Cooper Street, built 1925) and the Pierre Apartments (304-306 Cooper Street, built 1932). The early tenants of the Helene Apartments realized Patrick Farley's expectations: by 1915 and continuing through the 1920s, most were couples in their 30s and 40s, without children at home, with husbands in professions like insurance or engineering and wives who did not work outside the home. The cachet of the Helene Apartments faded somewhat during the Great Depression, when rents for some apartments dropped into the range of $30 to $40 a month. Some of the original tenants stayed on as retirees. By the 1940s, though, some newcomers came from the ranks of skilled trades, including cooks and draftsmen. In a few cases, households included a lodger or a boarder--more characteristic of rooming houses than a luxury apartment home. Ownership of the apartment building changed only once from the time of its construction until the 1960s. In 1917, Farley sold the Helene Apartments to one of his tenants, building and loan executive Paul J. Powell, and moved on to a comfortable retirement divided between homes in Ventnor and in Palm Beach, Florida. After Powell died in 1938, his widow Mary continued as owner until she died in 1963. By that time, she lived away from the building, with her daughter in Haddonfield, but her son-in-law maintained his medical office at the Helene. By the end of the Powell era of ownership, the building was showing its age. In 1961, problems with water supply to the upstairs apartments resulted from a water meter in need of updating, city officials said. A series of investor-owners through the last decades of the twentieth century marketed the apartments to workers of RCA and Campbell's as well as students of the emerging local campus of Rutgers University. The building managers sought to limit tenants to adults without children and stressed that residents should behave with respect to elderly neighbors and studious people who appreciated quiet. Nevertheless, the physical condition of the building deteriorated to the point that the mayor of Camden intervened in 2000 to remove some tenants from unsafe conditions. New investors in the Helene Apartments restored the building to a more habitable condition after 2000 and rebranded the building as the Castle Apartments. From the building's low point in the 1990s, when it went to sheriff's sale resulting in acquisition for $100, the building rebounded to a value of $1.1 million when purchased in 2011 by JVS Camden (later JVS Partnership) of Merchantville. Associated architects/builders Patrick J. Farley, developer and first owner. Sources Camden City Directories (Camden County Historical Society, Ancestry.com). Camden County Property Records. Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com). U.S. Census and New Jersey State Census (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 Helene Apartments (Castle Apartments, 232 Cooper Street / 125 N. Third Street) Description An account of the resource Contributing structure, Cooper Street Historic District. 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 200 Block 2000s 2010s 232 Cooper Street Apartments Demolition Investment Ireland Real Estate Redevelopment Romanesque Revival https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/0bbd79ebafd8edf59bc80dc8af39f8c4.jpg e13f19db68465ae2b4f99c509addff59 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. Time period on Cooper Street 1867-88 Location(s) - Cooper Street 228 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 105 Cove Road, Pennsauken Township/Merchantville Birth Date c. 1840 Birthplace Burlington County Death Date April 1, 1912 Biographical Text Among the many women who headed households on Cooper Street, Sallie Ackley had a distinction: In 1867, while still in her 20s, she independently contracted for construction of a new home. The three-story Italianate townhouse at 228 Cooper Street survived into the twenty-first century. It represents a young woman's story of survival in the wake of tragedy and offers a connection to the early nineteenth-century settlement of Camden. Sallie Ackley was born into the Wilkins family, early settlers of Burlington County. Her grandfather, Isaac Wilkins, moved to Camden to go into the lumber business on the Delaware River waterfront, and in 1814 he purchased lots at Third and Cooper Streets as well as Third and Market. These properties passed by inheritance through the Wilkins family, including the land for 228 Cooper Street. Sallie Wilkins became Sallie Ackley in 1864, when she married a local doctor, Henry Ackley, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Her new husband had recently returned from service as U.S. Navy surgeon, but with his health irreversibly damaged by a bout with yellow fever aboard the USS San Jacinto in the Gulf of Mexico. He and Sallie had little more than a year together before he died of tuberculosis in December 1865. Six weeks later, Sallie gave birth to their son, Henry Wilkins Ackley, whom she had baptized at St. Paul's in July. Another tragedy followed, however, when the child died just short of his first birthday. It was the latest in a long line of family losses, in that Sallie's parents also had died during the war years. Although tragic, the circumstances conferred both independence and resources on Sallie Ackley, enabling her to contract for the house at 228 Cooper Street. The land was then owned by her brother, <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/People/CamdenPeople-RichardCWilkins.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Richard C. Wilkins</a>; it stood adjacent to her grandfather's former property on the corner of Third and Cooper, which had passed by inheritance to her aunt Eliza Davis. Sallie paid $7,500 to Harden and Brothers Contractors to build the house, and she specified the Trenton stone facade unlike anything else on the block. By 1870, at age 28, she headed a household consisting of her brother Richard, a 23-year-old veteran of the Civil War; her aunt Eliza (then age 73, she sold the corner house next door); and two domestic servants. Her activities included serving as a manager for the <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/CamdenNJ-Home-Friendless-Children.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Camden Home for Friendless Children</a>, and in 1874 she bought the land under her house from her brother for $1,000. Sallie Ackley's life took a new turn by 1877, when she married a Camden bank teller, Nathan F. Cowan. They continued to live at 228 Cooper Street while rearing three healthy sons, two of them twins. Around 1888, they followed the trend of many of Cooper Street's professional-class families and moved to a suburban home on the Pennsauken Township border with Merchantville. Associated Individuals Isaac Wilkins (grandfather) Richard M. Wilkins (father, died 1861) Elizabeth Ann Coate Wilkins (mother, died 1861) Richard C. Wilkins (brother) Henry Ackley (first husband, died 1865, buried Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia). Henry Wilkins Ackley (son, died 1867, buried Woodlands Cemetery Philadelphia) Nathan F. Cowan (husband) William Cowan (son) Herbert Cowan (son) Edgar Cowan (son) Sources Building Contracts, Camden County Historical Society. Camden/Gloucester County Deeds (Familysearch.org). Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com). New Jersey State Census; New Jersey Church Records, Birth Records, and Death Records (Ancestry.com). U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880. Photographs of the Wilkins family, including Sallie and Richard, are posted on the <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/People/CamdenPeople-RichardCWilkins.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website dvbs.com</a>. Research by Charlene Mires, Robbie DeSimone, and Lucy Davis. Photograph above, 228 Cooper Street in 2019, by Jacob Lechner. 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 Ackley, Sallie (Wilkins) Description An account of the resource In the wake of the Civil War, a young widow contracted for a new house to be built at 228 Cooper Street. 1860s 1870s 1880s 200 Block 228 Cooper Street Adult Childhood Civil War Death Extended Family Female Investment Italianate 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 During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, two Chinese laundries operated in the 200 block of Cooper Street. Like their counterparts throughout the United States in this era, the men who hand-laundered clothing for Camden's white residents endured harassment and sometimes violence. They also earned respect from Cooper Street neighbors who came to their defense as they persisted in the hot, damp, monotonous work of earning a living in one of the few occupations open to them at the time. Camden gained its first Chinese laundry by 1877, around the same time that a <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/chinatown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">community of Chinese immigrants</a> began to form in Philadelphia. Judging by business listings in Camden city directories, Hong Sing's laundry at 62 and then 108 N. Second Street was the only commercial hand-laundry in the city from 1877 until 1881. By 1884, the number of Chinese laundries grew to six, enough to attract the attention of the Camden County Courier. In a story headlined "The Heathen Chinese," the Courier's writer observed: "If in the next few years our Chinese population and their laundries increase in the proportion that they have recently we shall soon have a veritable Chinatown in our midst, and if any one has a dirty shirt or soiled linen it will be his own fault." Camden's Chinese laundries had three to four men each, living at the laundries, and the city's residents were becoming accustomed to seeing the "Celestials" who wore traditional clothing and braided their hair in queues. The Chinese, for their part, operated at risk of vandalism and attacks by young men described by the newspaper as "hoodlums." The numbers of Chinese and non-Chinese laundries in Camden grew with the city's population, and Chinese immigrants dominated the business with 30 of 41 laundries in 1890; 40 of 63 in 1900; 37 of 49 in 1910; and 29 of 35 in 1920. Some Chinese entrepreneurs ran two or three laundries, and some started laundries other South Jersey communities like Merchantville and Haddonfield. They did not, as the Camden newspaper expected, coalesce into a local Chinatown but dispersed their laundries around the city. On days when business did not require their presence, the laundry men maintained cultural connections by participating in the social life of Philadelphia's Chinatown. The Chinese laundries on Cooper Street were located at 214 and 220, in a row of four small brick row houses that then stood on the site occupied in 2020 by the Cooper Street Historic Building Apartments and its adjacent parking lot. The row houses, two and one-quarter stories each, may have been built as early as 1820, when Cooper Street was still a country road leading to the Delaware River ferries. The aging row thus would have offered a relatively cheap yet prominent location on a street otherwise regarded as a fashionable address. The first of the Chinese laundries on Cooper Street is documented as operating for just one year, during 1885 at 220 Cooper. This house had adjacent wood-frame outbuildings and stables, previously occupied by a milk distribution depot and a manufacturing facility for Fleishmann's yeast. During the location's year as a laundry, the Camden city directory named the owner as Junkee Kwong. The New Jersey State Census recorded three Chinese men at this address, rendering their names as Hong Sing, Charlie Lee, and Louie Lee. Like so many other Chinese men during the era of the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese Exclusion Act</a> (1882), they were single; immigration restriction prohibited bringing additional Chinese women or families to the United States. A Chinese laundry of greater duration operated at 214 Cooper Street from 1889 to 1901. In 1889, Ghe Lee advertised his business as the Camden Courier-Post as "the first good laundry in Camden." City directories subsequently listed the laundry operators at this address as Charlie Tom (1890-93) and Ying Lee (1894-1901). In 1895, Ying Lee and the laundry shared the address with the family of a German cigar-maker. The laundry at 214 Cooper opened while new, grander houses were built next door at 204, 206, and 210 Cooper in 1890. The neighbors who moved into these homes included a retired wealthy couple, the head of a manufacturing firm, and an attorney. An incident in 1897 provides greatest access to the experience of Ying Lee, the 214 Cooper Street laundry, and the attitudes of Cooper Street neighbors toward the Chinese in their midst. Ying Lee, born in China in 1860, had lived in the United States since childhood. He would have lived first in the western United States, where racism and discrimination prompted migration to other regions. By 1880, at age 20, he was in Philadelphia. By 1894, he was in the laundry business at 214 Cooper Street. Over the door, he displayed a small American flag. Harassment and vandalism of Chinese laundries was common in Camden, and the rowdiness alarmed and frightened Cooper Street's residents. Their appeals to police seemed to receive little attention. For Ying Lee, a particularly harrowing incident occurred in 1897 when three young men, two white and one African American, threatened him with knives and held him at gunpoint while they searched for money. Thieves had learned that Chinese laundrymen kept cash in their businesses, and in this case they escaped with $15--not a large sum, but a significant amount for the income of a hand laundry. The escalation of violence prompted Ying Lee's neighbors to take further steps to try to restore peace to the neighborhood. The problem was not the Chinaman, they told the local press, but the local rowdyism against him. Dissatisfied with the response of local officials, a civil engineer who lived across the street from the laundry, Richard Pancoast, looked across the river to Philadelphia's Chinatown for assistance. He alerted the missionary in charge of the YMCA in Chinatown, Frederick Poole, who visited the mayor of Camden to urge action against laundry violence. To the consternation of local officials, Poole described Camden as a particular problem area in a letter to the Chinese Minister in the United States in Washington. The missionary also called the matter to the attention of the governor of New Jersey, who summoned Camden's mayor to a meeting. The publicity does not seem to have prompted any particular action on the part of authorities. The next year, however, the Camden Board of Health focused on 214 Cooper Street as an example of unsanitary properties needing attention for the benefit of public health. They cast this as an action against the owner of the property, a local oyster dealer, but their perception would have aligned with then-common associations between Chinese immigrants and disease. The 214 Cooper Street house, according to the Board of Health, "has been a constant menace to health in that community for a number of years." The board ordered under-drainage to reduce risk of typhoid fever and other diseases. In the wake of the 1897 holdup, Ying Lee's neighbors encouraged him to get a gun to defend himself, but he declined. He remained in business at 214 Cooper Street until 1901, and he expanded to one and sometimes two other laundries in Camden. He was displaced from Cooper Street when the house he rented became part of the property being assembled for construction of a new mansion for a wealthy shipmaster, John B. Adams. Ying Lee may have returned to Philadelphia, where that city's directory in 1904 listed a person by the same name in the business of Chinese goods at 912 Race Street, in the heart of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Time period on Cooper Street 1885, 1889-1901 Location(s) - Cooper Street 214 and 220 Cooper Street Occupation Laundry Operators Associated Individuals (As recorded by Census or Camden City Directories) Junkee Kwong (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Hong Sing (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Charlie Lee (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Louie Lee (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Ghe Lee (214 Cooper Street, 1889) Charlie Tom (214 Cooper Street, 1890-93) Ying Lee (214 Cooper Street, 1894-1901) Richard Pancoast (neighbor, 205 Cooper Street) Research by Charlene Mires and Lucy Davis Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com). Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com). Jung, John. Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain. Yin and Yang Press, 2010. U.S. Census. Posted by Charlene Mires Direct 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 Chinese Laundry Men Description An account of the resource Two Chinese laundries operated on Cooper Street during the late nineteenth century. 1880s 1890s 200 Block 214 Cooper Street 220 Cooper Street Business China Crime Immigrants Laundries Philadelphia Police Public Health 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. Time period on Cooper Street C. 1845-1883 (property owner, possible resident c. 1847-50 and 1855-60) Location(s) - Cooper Street 413-415-417 Cooper Street. Location(s) - Other Philadelphia; 416-418-420-422 Lawrence Street, Camden. Biographical Text In a city atlas of Camden published in 1877, a name appears diagonally across the lots numbered <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/70" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">413</a>, <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/45" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">415</a>, and <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/48" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">417</a> Cooper Street: Hannah Atwood. Yet Hannah does not otherwise appear in records of Camden residents, such as city directories or the Census. Who was she, and why did she own property where she seldom lived? A clue lies in the nomination of Cooper Street for the National Register for Historic Places, which documents a sale of land from Richard Cooper to Hannah Atwood in 1845, more than thirty years prior to the atlas. The transaction, which the nomination associates with 413 Cooper Street, would have been among the first sales of Cooper family land on the north side of Cooper Street. The nomination provides a further clue, an undated later transfer of the land to Hannah's granddaughter, Clara V. Fisher, and a sale of 413 Cooper Street by Charles P. Fisher (Clara's husband) in 1883. The rest of the story, as it emerges from records of the lives of Hannah Atwood and her family, reveals more about the development of Camden in the nineteenth century and the economic strategies of a married woman whose husband, an artist, was frequently absent and dependent on patrons for income. Jesse Atwood, born in New Hampshire, was an itinerant portrait painter who became best known for a journey to Mexico to paint General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican-American War (while living in Camden in 1847, he created a bust based on the portrait and offered it for sale). He also painted portraits of presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, and promoted this work to entice other patrons as he traveled. According to Who's Who in American History, Hannah and Jesse Atwood came to Philadelphia from Rhode Island around 1830, which may have been shortly after their marriage. They had at least two children while Jesse pursued his art in a city known for institutions such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he displayed his work in 1841. He also traveled to Deerfield, Massachusetts (1832), and Richmond, Virginia (1841), among other places. His trip to Mexico to paint Zachary Taylor was covered in the press, as was his opportunity to paint Abraham Lincoln in Illinois shortly after Lincoln's election. Hannah, who had been born Rhode Island, was about 45 years old when she purchased the Camden property in 1845 (and a second adjoining lot in 1846). It was not unusual for Philadelphians to purchase investment property in Camden during the nineteenth century, and that seems to have been Hannah's purpose. When she later bequeathed her property to her granddaughter, she described the process of collecting rents and maintaining the property in good order. During the 1840s and 1850s the Atwoods added to the value of the property, which spanned fifty feet on Cooper Street, by building seven houses. Three faced Cooper Street, and four smaller houses faced Lawrence Street in the rear. Two of the houses, built in 1853 at <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/45" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">415</a> and <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/48" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">417</a> Cooper Street, attracted notice in the Philadelphia Public Ledger: "Mr. Atwood has nearly finished two exquisitely, ornamentally and conveniently arranged dwelling houses on Cooper Street. They are fine additions to the improvements of that part of the city." Hannah's presence can be traced only through her marriage to Jesse, who was listed in Camden and Philadelphia city directories. The Atwoods lived in Camden during the late 1840s and again between 1855 and 1860, but otherwise they lived in Philadelphia. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, other tenants occupied row houses on Hannah's Cooper Street land--among them, a widow and her daughter who generated their own income by taking in boarders. Jesse Atwood died in Philadelphia in 1870, at the age of 79, and Hannah lived until 1883. Both are buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Hannah's will specified the houses at 415 and 417 Cooper Street as bequests to her granddaughter, without mentioning the adjoining property at 413. Although her will envisioned the houses as an ongoing source of independent income, Clara Fisher sold both to a new owner by 1888. Separately, Clara's husband sold 413 Cooper Street in 1883. Hannah Atwood's long record of ownership on Cooper Street faded from memory. Occupation Property owner Birth Date c. 1800 Birthplace Rhode Island Death Date 1883 in Philadelphia, buried Laurel Hill Cemetery Associated Individuals Jesse Atwood (husband) George Atwood (son) Sarah Miller Atwood (daughter-in-law, wife of George) Mary Atwood (daughter) Clara Virginia Atwood Fisher (granddaughter, daughter of George and Sarah) Charles Perry Fisher (son-in-law, husband of Clara) Edith Gay Fisher (great-granddaughter, daughter of Clara and Charles) Richard Fisher (great-grandson, son of Clara and Charles) Ellen M. Gay (sister, living in New York City) Gamelia Gay (brother-in-law, husband of Ellen) George Grace (boarder in Philadelphia home, 1880) Sources Camden and Philadelphia City Directories (Ancestry.com). Holzer, Harold. Lincoln, President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter, 1860-61 (New York, Simon and Shuster, 2008), 88. Hopkins, G.M. City Atlas of Camden, New Jersey (1877), Camden County Historical Society. New Jersey Wills and Probate Records (Ancestry.com). U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers (Library Company of Philadelphia). Sandweiss, Martha A. Print the Legend: Photography and the American West (Yale University Press, 2002), 27. Who's Who in American History (Marquis Biographies Online). Research by Charlene Mires Send corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu 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 Atwood, Hannah Description An account of the resource Investing in Camden real estate provided steady income to an artist's wife for nearly 40 years. 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 400 Block 413 Cooper Street 415 Cooper Street 417 Cooper Street Adult Artists Female Investment Philadelphia Rhode Island 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 By all outward appearances, Henry Coy led a relatively unremarkable but prosperous middle-class life for roughly 15 years when he lived in the block of Cooper Street that later became Johnson Park. Only after his death in 1881 did rumors arise that created a macabre legend about Coy and his family. But were the rumors true? Coy, a Canadian, arrived in the Philadelphia-South Jersey region by 1858 and by 1860 lived at 101 Cooper Street, a three-story brick house that had been standing at the northeast corner of Front and Cooper since the late eighteenth century. His journey to the region may have included time in Massachusetts, where his wife, Sarah, was born. In 1860, at age 35, he headed an extended family household that consisted of Sarah, then age 25; their eight-month-old daughter, Mary Hannah; two women and a child who may have been Sarah's relations; and two servants. By 1870, the Coy family expanded to five children. Sarah Coy's mother, Mary, also lived with the family for a time and died at 101 Cooper Street in 1866, at age 74. To support the family, Coy commuted by ferry across the Delaware River to Philadelphia, where he worked as an agent for Wheeler & Wilson sewing machines. The company, based in Bridgeport, Conn., had emerged quickly during the late 1850s as the leading manufacturer of sewing machines, largely for industrial use. Coy had the only Wheeler & Wilson shop in Philadelphia, in second-floor space at 628 Chestnut Street; he offered machines and operators for hire as well as stitching done in the office. In addition to supporting his family, the income allowed for some minor luxuries, including two carriages and a gold watch. Around 1870, Coy left the sewing machine business to become a manager for the S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company, the Philadelphia-based leading maker of high-quality dental instruments. He not only led the instrument-making shop, he also designed and made instruments himself. Forceps, mallets, punch instruments, and other dental tools bearing his maker mark, HC, remain in the <a href="https://temple.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Coy%2C+Henry&page=2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Historical Dental Museum</a> at Temple University and other collections. The Coy family left Cooper Street in 1874 and moved about three miles eastward to Stockton Township, Camden County, and from there to Palmyra in Burlington County. Henry Coy continued in the dental instruments business until his death in 1881. The next year, on May 1, 1882, a bizarre story appeared in the Camden Morning Post: AFTER TWENTY YEARS. A FATHER'S ECCENTRICITY Three Dead Bodies which a Camden Man Refused to Have Buried The report claimed that three bodies recently buried in Palmyra were long-dead children of Henry Coy. And, most shockingly, that during his years on Cooper Street Coy had kept the remains in coffins in his home. "He was a very eccentric man," said the Post, "and it is said he was unwilling to make the acquaintance of any one near him, and that he has found great pleasure during these long years, in sitting for hours at time in the room with the caskets containing his departed children." The tale, reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, reappeared in a much longer, more obviously fictional version eleven years later. Published first in the Philadelphia Times in a section devoted to "Life's Thrilling Side," and then picked up again in Camden by the Morning Post on June 19, 1893, the new version retained the story about the deceased children. But it also spun a highly elaborate description of Coy (this time named Philip, "a long-bearded, impenetrable Canadian") and his haunted mansion replete with secret closets, concealed panels, vaults, and a coffin-shaped cupola. Attributing new details to two caretakers of the property after the Coys moved out, the 1893 version of the story portrayed a haunted house that echoed with sounds of infants wailing and feet shuffling in the cellar. For readers of the late nineteenth-century, the story may have offered a racist clue to its fictional nature by attributing the ghost stories to "Cyrus Green, an old colored man" and his wife, Sarah. Camden readers would have spotted an obvious confusion of references to the "Cooper mansion," which was not the house the Coys occupied, and other errors of local details. Philip was the name of Henry Coy's adult son who died in 1892, prior to publication of the second story. The Coy story also appeared in a pamphlet about Camden historic houses in 1920, characterized as a "rumor." Could there be any truth to the legends of the Coy family? The records of the family across the U.S. Census of 1860, 1870, and 1880 show no disappearing names of children, and hence suggest no deaths. However, New Jersey birth records document an earlier child, and perhaps twins, born in Camden to Henry Coy on March 7, 1858 (the records do not name the mother, and it is unclear whether two very similar records for the same date are duplications or documentation for twins). No Coy children of this age appear in the 1860 Census, so the 1858 infant or infants are unaccounted for. Some elements of the later stories may suggest a plausible explanation: in the 1893 version, Coy is reported to have buried deceased twins in a Haddonfield cemetery without a proper funeral. It is conceivable--but speculation--that after his death in 1881, children buried elsewhere might have been exhumed to be buried with him in Palmyra. This would account for the story about burials that appeared in 1882, and at least one other Cooper Street family is known to have moved an earlier-buried child to rest with a later-deceased parent. Indeed, the Coys have a large, <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46885440/henry-coy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enclosed family plot in the Epworth Methodist Church Cemetery</a> with just one headstone that is perhaps revealing in its silences: "Henry - Sarah S Coy / And Family." Time period on Cooper Street c. 1858/60-1874 Location(s) - Cooper Street 101 Cooper Street (northeast corner of Front and Cooper, later Johnson Park) Location(s) - Other Philadelphia Stockton Township, Camden County Palmyra, Burlington County Occupation Sewing machine dealer (prior to 1870) Dental instrument designer/manufacturer (after 1870) Birth Date c. 1825 Birthplace Kingston, Ontario (Canada West) Death Date September 2, 1881 in Palmyra, Burlington County, N.J. Associated Individuals Sarah Coy (wife) Mary Hannah Coy (daughter) Elizabeth Coy (daughter) Philip H. Coy (son) Susan Coy (daughter) Hellen Coy (daughter) Susan, Haddie, and Addie Brown (possible relatives of wife Sarah) Mary Seger (mother-in-law) Ada Robbins Coy (daughter-in-law, married son Philip) Lydia Everson (servant) Jane Wilson (servant) Emma Everman (servant) Samuel Stockton White (employer at S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Co., Philadelphia) Sources "After Twenty Years." Camden Morning Post, May 1, 1882. Boyer, Charles S. "The Old Houses in Camden, New Jersey." Annals of Camden, Vol. 1 (privately published, 1920). "Camden's Pet Ghosts." Camden Morning Post, June 19, 1893. Camden City Directories, Camden County Historical Society (Ancestry.com). Edmunson, James M. American Surgical INstruments: The History of Their Manufacture and a Directory of Instrument Makers to 1900 (Novato, Calif: Norman Publishing, 1997), 61. New Jersey Births and Christenings Index (Ancestry.com). "S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Co." in Matos, William, comp. Philadelphia: Its Founding and Development, 1683-1908 (Philadelphia, 1908), 324. U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880. "Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Co." in Hounshell, Davis, From the American SYstem to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkinson University Press, 1985), 68-75. Research by Charlene Mires Send corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu 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 Coy, Henry Subject The topic of the resource Description An account of the resource Did the Coy family harbor a secret in their home at 101 Cooper Street? 100 Block 101 Cooper Street 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s Adult Canada Childhood Death Dental Implements Ghost Stories Johnson Park Male Massachusetts Newspapers Palmyra Philadelphia Sewing Machines Stockton Township