I've always been interested in Postcards. Here are some Camden Postcards, some dating back to the 19th Century.

Left- Probably my all-time favorite Postcard. The optimism in Camden's future jumps right out of the card!

If you have any images to share, please contact me.

Phil Cohen      

E-mail comments to   Phil552@reagan.com

The subject of "Convention Hall" and "The Armory" can be a bit confusing. Over the years Camden has had at least THREE buildings called "The Armory", and TWO called "Convention Hall".... and the SECOND Armory became known as Convention Hall after the FIRST Convention Hall burned down! 

Armory #1 was built on West Street south of Mickle in the late 19th Century. It was replaced around the turn of the century by the Armory #2, the 3rd Regiment Armory depicted below. The old Armory burned to the ground in 1906 in a fire that took the lives of three Camden firemen. Before it burned down, it was used to host pro basketball and other events of a similar nature. The Camden Electrics, 1902-1903 champions of the National Basket Ball (two words in those days!) League, played their home games here.

A third Armory was built around the time of World War I to house Field Artillery Battery B of the New Jersey National Guard.

In 1926 the first Convention Hall opened its doors, on Memorial Avenue near Line Street. This building remained in use until it too burned down in the early 1950s. Convention Hall hosted boxing and wrestling matches, and other similar events, including a televised circus show in the early 1950s called The Big Top.

Here is where the confusion arose. When Convention Hall #1 burned down, virtually all of the events formerly held there now were held at the Armory #2, which became known in short order as Convention Hall! Most people born after 1945 would have little or no memory of the original Convention Hall, or the Armory #2 was ever called anything else but "Convention Hall"!

This Convention Hall (#2, if that helps), the old 3rd Regiment Armory (also #2), was where roller derby, wrestling, and in the early 1960s the Camden Bullets professional basketball team held forth, until it too was lost in a fire, in the early 1970s.

Armory #3 has been the home of Camden's Public World Department since at least the 1970s. 

Did you get all that?!?!?!?!?

CLICK ON THE PICTURES 
FOR FULL SIZED VIEWS 

June 8, 2003- Thanks to Benedict Tisa for contributing
many images now on this page

This seldom-seen picture shows the Third Regiment Armory as see from the west, along the railroad tracks and "Chinese Wall" that are now Mickle Boulevard. Haddon Avenue can be seen at the rear, coming out from under the wall and passing behind the station. The rear of the train appears to have just crossed Mickle Street, which passed directly in from the Armory, which, as stated above, was renamed Convention Hall in the 1950s.

1> The Cooper Branch Library, now known as the Walt Whitman Poetry Center
2> The Soldiers Monument, 
     Camden Convention Hall (#2) is visible behind the trees!
3> Camden High School, as seen from Park Boulevard, east of Baird Boulevard.
4> Center City Camden NJ- Note the elevated railway, known as "The Chinese Wall" along the Mickle Street, at the bottom of the photo; and the Stanley Theater in the lower right corner, at the present sire of the Transportation center at Broadway and Mickle; the Woolworth Store on Broadway; Lit Brothers on Broadway, whose building is now used by the County government; and the Parkade building, to the left of City Hall.

BENEDICT TISA