BLAINE STREET originally ran from 424 South 7th Street to Trenton Avenue, and through to Haddon, end at 429 Haddon Avenue, with houses on the north side between South 7th and Trenton. The south side of Blaine Street has the rear of homes fronting on New Street, which runs parallel from South 7th Street to Trenton Avenue. In recent times the exit onto Haddon Avenue has been blocked off, and no houses stand anymore on Blaine Street. Blaine Street is bisected between South 7th and Trenton by an alley known as Edmunds Street.

Blaine Street first appear in Camden's city directories in the 1888-1889 edition. The street was named for James Gillespie Blaine, who served twice as Secretary of State and was the 1884 Republican candidate for President of the United States, losing to Grover Cleveland. Although Cleveland was from New Jersey, Camden was very much a Republican town, this being the era when General William Joyce Sewell dominated local politics. The James G. Blaine School , which was located on the south-east corner of North 23rd Street at Wayne Avenue, facing North 23rd Street, in the Pavonia-Cramer Hill section of Camden, in what was then Stockton Township was also named in his honor.  

Do you have a Blaine Street memory or picture. Let me know by e-mail so it can be included here.

 Phil Cohen