Diamond Cottage Park may well have been the first real city park in Camden. The park was the favorite haunt of boys and girls from North and Central Camden from the 1880s until the early 1920s, when the park was paved over to make room for the Delaware River (Ben Franklin) Bridge.

Diamond Cottage Grove
Camden Republican Club
Dr. S.H. Quint
Dr. Willis H. Hunt
Dr. A.L. Ironsides
Dr. Wallace McGeorge
Cooper Hospital
Federal Street Ferry
Federal Street
Twelfth Street
Linden Street
John Keogh

Diamond Cottage Park
was located between Broadway and 7th Street
and between
Penn and Linden Streets.

 Since 1926, that has been the location of the Bridge Plaza.

Click on Image to Enlarge

In 1926, Will Paul wrote this article for a special Sesquicentennial Exhibition section published by the Camden Courier on July 5th. Many of the boys who played there and who are mentioned in the article below went on to be leading citizens of Camden, including Volney Bennett, Martin Bergen, and Albert C. Middleton. Other leading citizens of the time mentioned are Dr. E.A.Y. Schellenger Sr., Cooper B. Hatch, , and General William Joyce Sewell. Read on for a peek into a bygone era rarely seen or heard of today.

Intersection at top of photo is
North 6th & Linden Street