After the erection of the Hotel Walt Whitman and the opening of the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, many of the same individuals involved in the hotel project became interested in establishing an athletic club on the new thoroughfare. This group was originally known as the City Athletic Club, and among its members were J. David Stern, publisher of the Evening Courier and Morning Post newspapers, James J. Scott, lawyer Ralph W. Wescott, and realtor Samuel B. Dobbs.

When this building opened up for the first time in 1933, the hopes for its future success and growth were quite high. The timing was all wrong, as the nation was in the throes of the Depression, and the Camden Athletic Club, which erected the building, did not remain viable. This was one of the first buildings beyond Sears Roebuck on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden. When plans were laid, no one really had any idea of what the boulevard would become in the near future, let alone 40 to 60 years later.

By 1947 the building was being used by the Y.M.C.A., but their tenure was short lived, and they group was out of the property by 1956. Around 1964 the building became the Oasis Motel, and with a liquor opened up the lounge in the basement, known appropriately enough, as the Oasis Lounge.

In the early 1970s go-go dancers were featured at all four bars on Admiral Wilson Boulevard, eastbound there was the Admiral, then the Oasis, and lastly the French Quarter, at the city limits. By 1977 the Oasis Lounge became the Harem Lounge, but all that really had changed was the name. The bar did a fairly good business until the property was acquired by the State of New Jersey as part of then Governor Christie Whitman's effort to impress national Republican leaders at the 2000 Convention. The effort netted her a Cabinet position, but Camden lost a bunch of tax paying businesses, exacerbating an already horrible financial situation.

As well as the bar did, the same could not be said about the motel upstairs. During the 60s and early 70s the building did a fair trade, especially with those coming across the bridge from Philadelphia for a little horizontal fun. Things went badly after that, as the Admiral Wilson Boulevard became known as a haven for prostitutes. The Oasis and the Wilson Motels throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s became notorious as bailiwicks of the working girls. It was a sad end for a building that had been erected with such high hopes. 

Camden Courier-Post - January 5, 1928

CITY ATHLETIC CLUB TO ACT ON OPENING
First Unit of Building About Ready for Occupancy; Meeting on Monday

Plans for early occupancy of the City Athletic Club's building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards, will be submitted to members at a mass meeting Monday at 7.30 p. m.

The first unit of the $1,000,000 structure is 95 percent completed, Samuel P. Orlando, secretary, said last night. Members will inspect the building before the meeting and act is on a proposal by the board of governors to open the unit. Details of the plan will not be disclosed until the meeting.

The unit, built at a cost of $120,000, lacks only furnishing and minor interior décor to be ready for occupancy. Work on the other seven sections of the clubhouse will be completed later.

Construction of the project was started last January. The building is three stories and contains all modern club facilities. In the basement will be a grill, dormitories for employees and offices. The gymnasium, cloakroom, steam room, reception room, and solarium are on the first floor. The second floor is given over to reception and reading rooms, billiard parlor and squash courts. Main and private dining rooms, roof garden, barber shop and other rooms are on the third floor. 

Plans for the building were drawn so that work on the other units can be started at any time.

NEW ATHLETIC CLUB HERE IS INSPECTED
Members Visit Building and Discuss Plans for Opening

The new City Athletic Club building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards was inspected last night by the membership, when plans for immediate opening were discussed at a mass meeting attended by 100.

The structure, the first unit of a $1,000,000 project, was built at a cost of $120,000. The clubhouse is artistically laid out and provides for every social and athletic activity.

Franklin P. Jones, president of the First National Bank of Beverly and chairman of the club's finance committee; Samuel P. Orlando, secretary, and other officers of the club submitted reports and plans at the meeting which are expected to assure immediate opening of the club.

The club has 785 members, of which 600 are founder members. The land, comprising seven and one-half acres, was purchased for cash at $150,000. George W. Shaner & Sons, Palmyra, are the contractors, and Paul P. Cret and Joseph N. Hettel, the architects.

E. E. Shumaker, former president of the RCA Victor Company, is president of the club. The vice presidents are Eldridge R. F. Johnson, George L. McGinley and Charles W. Russ. George B. Yard, Jr., is treasurer. Construction of the first unit was started last January. The building is three stories. Plans for it were drawn so that work on the other units can be started at any time. 

Camden Courier-Post - February 8, 1933

CITY ATHLETIC CLUB PLANS REFINANCING
Members Approve Proposal to Provide New Capital to Finish Building

A Plan for refinancing of the City Athletic Club was approved by several hundred members who met Monday night in the building at Admiral Wilson and Baird boulevards. 

The plan was submitted by Samuel P. Orlando, secretary of the club, and will be put before the board of governors of the club for ratification.

Under the plan as worked out by the club's finance committee, of which Franklin P. Jones, president of the First National Bank of Beverly, is chairman, the refinancing will put all members on an equal basis and will provide the club with new capital to assure the completion of the building.

The plan calls for the creation of a mortgage of $125,000 or $130,000, of which amount it will be necessary to raise as new capital about $50,000. The balance of the mortgage, as explained by Orlando, represents the $50,000 mortgage which Eldridge R. Johnson, honorary president of the club, gave at a dinner in his honor in November, 1931, and also some $25,000 or $30,000 worth of debenture bonds issued at the time of the dinner.

"When that money was raised" Orlando told the assemblage, "those who subscribed to the debenture bonds were given no security, other than the bonds which they were told were to be issued. It is in order to put everybody on the same level that this plan of raising one mortgage has been evolved. The remaining money will be used to assure successful operation of the club."

Former Senator David Baird, a member of the board of governors, spoke in favor of the plan, as did George B. Yard, Jr., treasurer of the club and others. Charles W. Russ, vice president, presided.

It was reported that the project is now 95 percent completed. After the meeting, a tour of inspection of the first unit of the proposed $1,000,000 clubhouse was made.