Bridgeton 1955
By Albert B. Kelly
I don’t know about anyone
else, but I love nostalgia. It doesn’t cost much of anything and it always
makes us feel good inside. Sometimes it might be hearing a song that takes you
back years to another time and place.
For me recently, it came
courtesy of one Paul Helmes and the 1955 Cumberland County Business Guide
distributed by the then Bridgeton Evening News which he was kind enough to
share. Having been born in 1955 and raised at 21 Willow St (now occupied by the
ALMS Center), these names and photos take me back to my beginnings.
For the record, Thomas A.
Dailey was Mayor and Fred Bates was the City Clerk; Earl McCormick was the
Comptroller and Kenneth Wilson was the Tax Collector. The Director of Welfare
was Wilbert Davis and the Commissioner of Streets was Colin Irving. The Council
President was Arthur Carman and while meetings were on Tuesdays, they began at
8:00pm. Go figure.
Bridgeton telephone
numbers had the old letter exchanges as in BR9-0278, which was the number for
Smasheys shoe store. Unlike today’s disposable mindset, Bridgetonians needed
television repair and they could choose between Stanley Clark, George Custer,
DeSantis Television Service, Henry’s Radio & TV Service, and Paul Sheppard.
If you had a little too
much to drink at the Victory Bar (51 E. Commerce Street), or perhaps Motta’s
Bar on Mulberry, you could always get home using Veale’s Taxi-Bridgeton first
taxi cab company. There was also the ABC Taxi Service at 48 S. Laurel Street-
perhaps Bridgeton’s second taxi service. Who knows?
For those looking to grab
a quick bite to eat downtown, we had the Copper Kettle (55 N. Laurel Street),
Gleissner’s Bar-B-Q (77 S Laurel Street), the Markette Dinett (81 S. Laurel),
and Skinny’s Restaurant
(55 N. Laurel Street).
I was surprised to see a
night phone number for the Bridgeton Live Poultry Market run by Tom, Steve, and
Lou at 11 Jefferson Street- I guess the day starts early when you’re doing live
poultry- though apparently not for Quaker Brand Baby Chicks (no night number)
at 103 Cohansey Street.
Bridgetonians could get
fine photos at Connelly-Moy (50 Fayette Street) or a good house painting from
Charles Emery, President of Modern Paint Co (24 S. Pine Street). For those who
enjoyed learning the Fox Trot, Waltz, Polka, Peabody, or Jive; there was the
Carnegie Dance Studio in the Feinstein Building
While generations of
doctors come and go, Bridgeton in 1955 boasted quite a few including Mary Bacon
(E Commerce St), Ben Berkowitz (E. Commerce St), William Fithian (East Ave),
Edwin Greene (N. Pearl), Alex Palladino (W. Commerce), Ralph Phillips (S
Giles), Anthony Pino (Irving Ave), Leonard Scott (Baltimore Ave), and Herbert
Wilson (Bank Street).
How many youngsters back
in the day visited the Walnut Street Hobby Shop at 31 Walnut Street? Their ad
says they stayed open until 10pm weekdays and Saturdays. How many remember Elwell’s
Food Market at the corner of Hampton and Giles Streets?
Bridgeton has always been
filled with people of faith. In 1955, those who led their respective flocks
included J.H. Wilson from Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Paul
Braisted from Pilgrim Holiness Church (270 Bank St), and Thomas Gooley from
Immaculate Conception.
Laurel Hill Methodist
Church (288 N. Laurel St) was led by Kenneth Stevens, while Pastor R. W. Davis
was in the pulpit at Union Baptist Temple. George Moody led Pearl Street
Baptist Church, and Robert DeRemer was at Berean Baptist.
Time and space won’t let
me list all there was to see and reflect on in this directory, but it was
enough to look back and remember. It may be that the past was never quite as
rosy and bright as we’d like to make it out to be, but whatever it may have
lacked, it offers its own special form of comfort to us now.
Many of the names in that
directory still make up part of the backbone of our community today; names such
as Woodruff, Russell, Sheppard, Hankins, Pearson, and Catalano to name but a
few examples- this current generation building and expanding on the success of their
forefathers.
Today there are new names
to consider such as Arellano, Sosa, Garcia, Rivera, Gomez, or Lopez and while
these can’t find much to be nostalgic about in a 1955 snapshot of our community-
they’re building lines forward so that a snapshot of now, might allow their
children to wax nostalgic in say 2055…and that’s no small thing.