Information provided by Melvin Firth
Gloucester Township Scenic and Preservation Committee

In the last issue of the newsletter I left you with a question about when Fire Districts 1 through 4 were created.  The answer is May 1957 by special elections held in Fire District 1, Glendora; Fire District 2, Chews Landing; Fire District 3, Blenheim; and Fire District 4, Blackwood. Only the voters in those Fire Districts were permitted to approve or disapprove the creation of the Fire Districts. Erial and Lambs Terrace Fire Companies remained under Gloucester Township control for several more years due to the lack of ratables. In 1957 there was no building construction taking place in either Erial and Lambs Terrace sections of the township. In Glendora, new housing started after the end of World War II and the same can be said about Blackwood. When Gloucester Township constructed a new sewer plant and sewered all of Glendora, Chews Landing, Blenheim, and Blackwood in 1964-65, the building boom started. Soon after the construction of the sewer system, city water was being installed in those 4 Fire Districts. Little by little, sewer and water service expanded throughout the township and created a large construction boom everywhere and now the township is almost built out.

In past issues I have talked about the early history of Gloucester Township but this time I want to relate what our small town of Blackwood was like in the late 1940's and 1950's.

I want to acknowledge that Glendora had a small business district along the Black Horse Pike in the area of Station Ave. However, the main business district in the township was along the Black Horse Pike in Blackwood.

In Blackwood a man could buy a full suit of clothes including top hat, shoes, and dress overcoat. A lady could purchase a ready made dress, stockings, shoes, hats, and a dress coat in town; or dress making items complete from patterns, fabric, buttons, zippers, thread, from Mrs. Brown's Towne Shope located next to the Blackwood Movie.

A family could purchase a new Studebaker of Chevrolet in the 1920's and a new or used Plymouth or Chrysler in the 1940's and 1950's at Pollack's Automobile Dealership located at the corner of Garfield Ave. And the Black Horse Pike. Pollack's also had a service station and sold Mobile gasoline.

You always had Gracie's 5 & 10 Cent Store on the Pike between Central and Lake Ave.'s for those everyday odds and ends and school supplies.

There was the Blackwood Movie house with the Saturday matinee for the kids, and the cost was only 12 cents per kid. Double Feature night was every Wednesday evening. After the movie you would stop at Worrell's Drug Store and purchase a soda at the fountain made by a real live soda jerk or purchase a quart of hand dipped Breyer's Ice Cream to take home. If you did not like Breyer's Ice Cream you could go to Merlino's Patent Medicine Store and soda fountain at the corner of W. Church Street and the Black Horse Pike. Merlino's sold Abbott's and Jane Logan Ice Cream and also had a full soda fountain and lunch counter. In the late 1950's my brother Jack worked as a soda jerk at Merlino's. Both Merlino's and Worrell's were busy stores on Saturday nights when the Sunday Bullentin and Inquire newspapers were delivered to the stores. At each of the stores it was common for people to wait three deep at the soda counter for their turn to purchase hand dipped ice cream. On Friday and Saturday nights, Merlino's sold fresh cooked seafood from their Ocean City store, Hickman's Seaford, located on Asbury Ave.

There was the American Store, which was located next to Merlino's on the Black Horse Pike; this was a small store not like the modern type super markets. American Stores built a new super market on the Black Horse Pike by the name of Acme where the present day library is located. Also there was at least 2 other small grocery stores plus Bachelor's Butcher Shop, which today is a pizza shop, two doors down from the Camden Trust Bank on the corner of E. Church St.

There was the Blackwood Diner at the very corner of Lake Ave. And the Black Horse Pike with the steps leading into the diner directly from the sidewalk where now stands a closed former Gulf gas station (not the present corner where the diner stands). The diner was owned and operated by Mr. Larry Ventui and his wife. Also at the corner of Lake Ave. And the Pike was Palumbo's Shoe Store where Mr. & Mrs. Gus Palumbo sold Sundial Shoes. The Palumbo's not only measured your feet and personally fitted you for new shoes but they also repaired shoes and sharpened ice skates. In those days you always got your shoes half-soled or the heels replaced when they wore out at least two times before throwing the shoes away.

You could purchase any kind of insurance needed, auto, home or business in town and you had a choice of two different agencies, Paul Joyce, later Lou Joyce III, or Horner Agencies. These same folks were also the real estate agents.

You also had Pine's Lumber & Coal Yard down next to the railroad tracks where the present day caboose is located. Also there was E & J Hardware Store next to Worrell's Drug Store on the Black Horse Pike. Pine's Hardware Store was located across from the present day Meadow's Diner on the Black Horse Pike, both of the hardware stores served the needs of the town's people for many years and now both are gone. Before the new Acme was constructed at the present day library location there was Simpkins Paint, Hardware, and Feed Store that served this area along with Pine's Lumber Yard for many years before the E & J Hardware Store opened for business.

There was Saylor's Bakery in the middle of the block between E. Church Street and Cleveland Ave. on the Black Horse Pike, which was very busy on Sunday mornings. This was the only bakery in town until the middles 50's when a new bakery opened in the shopping center just past Marshall Ave. On the very corner of W. Church Street and the Worrell's Drug Store was Mawson's ESSO gas station. From time to time the empty lot would host the Blackwood Vol. Fire Company annual Block Party or a traveling carnival complete with rides as a fundraiser for the Gloucester Township Drum & Bugle Corp. of which I was the head bugler. At all other times the lot served as an unofficial public parking lot for people who rode the Public Service bus to work everyday.

Where the closed up drug store is located just past the present day diner was the location of the Twin Kiss Custard Stand latter to become known as Johnnie's Drive In. Johnnie's had the best hamburgers, steak sandwiches and hoagies in town complete with frosted must of root beer. Every year at Halloween they gave the trick or treaters a mug of root beer.

Then we had two barber shops in town, Mike's which after World War II was taken over by Mike's nephew Tony across from the present day diner and Paul's up on the north end of the Black Horse Pike towards Cleveland Ave. Also not to be outdone there were at least two hair dressers for the women folks. I know that Gertrude Young (Godfrey) operated her shop in the small building next to the present day Blackwood Liquor Store and later from her home on New Jersey Ave. I do not remember where the other shop was located.

Blackwood also had Chews Florist Shop located on the Black Horse Pike across from Central Ave. and Mother & Son's Florist and Green Houses located on the Black Horse Pike south of Marshall Ave. and before Lakeland Rd. Both of these shops served the town for many years. Mother and Son Florist is long gone but Chews Florist is now operated by the third generation of the Chew Family. Let it also be noted that the Chew Family has direct roots to the Aaron Chew Family from Chews Landing.

We also had our own weekly newspaper, the Observer, which was last published on W. Church St at the foot of Harrison Ave. before moving to Turnersville on Rt. 42 at the junction of Rt. 168. This weekly paper would publish all the local happenings from Blackwood, Blenheim, Hilltop, Chews Landing, Glendora, Erial, and Lambs Terrace. Each area of the township had its own reporter who wrote a column about the happenings in their area and it was published in the paper each week. Then the paper reported the general happenings within the township and many times reported on things that a lot of people wish was never put in print.

Blackwood was also served by Dr. Stanley Kowalski, DDS; three medical doctors, Dr. Charles McWilliams located on W. Church Street, Dr. Seto located next to the parking lot of a 1960's Acme on Black Horse Pike across from Cleveland Ave., and Dr. Sarama was located in the building he owned next to present day library on the Black Horse Pike. Many years ago, Dr. Sarama's building was the home of Bruce's Bakery and before that a private academy for girls. Blackwood and the general area was also served by the Charles W. McCann Funeral Home located on W. Church Street presently the Earle Funeral Home.

Blackwood was a progressive small country town self-supporting in the commercial world. If there was something you needed or wanted and not available in town just hop in the car and drive to either Woodbury or Camden. The other option was to take the Public Service bus to either Camden or Philadelphia for your shopping needs because there were no malls available.

Up until about 1956 when the new telephone switching station was constructed on W. Church Street there was no dial phone service in the area. If you wanted to make a phone call you would simply lift up the telephone receiver and wait for the operator to come on the line and say, "number please". You would give her the number and she would place a call for you. The local exchange was Blackwood 8 and the operator placed all calls out of Blackwood through the main office in Woodbury. For example if you wanted to make a call to Pine's Lumber Yard in Blackwood you simply told the operator "1" because the number was Blackwood 8-0001. You see Mr. Pine Sr. was responsible for getting phone service brought into Blackwood many years ago and his lumberyard got the first phone.

Now with all of this up to date living and convenient commercial world available to the folks living in the Blackwood area there is one thing the people living in Blackwood didn't have until about 1951-52 and that was house to house mail delivery. You could get your mail twice a day but you had to walk to U.S. Post Office which was located at the corner of Central Ave. and the Black Horse Pike in a former bank building. Every homeowner and business in town had a postal box with a combination or a key lock. The lobby was filled with postal boxes to serve the all the homeowners and business's in town. By the way a first class stamp only cost 3 cents and a post card 1 cent which included the card. This was Post Office location number three and from here they relocated to a new building on Lake Ave. behind the Blackwood Vol. Fire Co. during the early 1950's. This building no longer stands today. The present Blackwood Post Office Building located on Davistown Rd. is location number six since Blackwood first had postal service. The very first post office still stands today on E. Church Street next to the Presbyterian Manse. Post Office number two still stands on the Black Horse Pike as a concrete block building now a private home located on the north end of the red brick stores toward Cleveland Ave.

There was a lady who lived on New Jersey Ave. by the name of May Lowe affectionately known to all as "Aunt May". She would walk to the post office at the corner of Central Ave. and the Black Horse Pike twice a day not only to pick up her own mail but the mail of all her friends and neighbors and deliver it on her way home. She would take the short cut through the back lot of Simpkins Feed Store and cross the Black Horse Pike to the Post Office. Of course this could take a while because it was necessary to catch up on the latest news in the process. "Aunt May" provided this service every day and not just once in a while, because that is just the type of person she was, very good natured and caring. She was the local Girl Scout Leader for several years and always had many activities at her home for the girls. Aunt May was very close to many of us who had the privilege of knowing her while she was on this earth. I remember going to her house for lunch every Wednesday while I was in 7th and 8th grades in the Blackwood Jr. High School, present day Gloucester Township School. Aunt May was a very close friend of my mother; in fact they were friends while growing up on separate farms in Cecil below Williamstown and attended the Cecil School. Aunt May could be seen walking around Blackwood either shopping or visiting friends all the time because she didn't, as a rule, drive during the war years when gasoline was rationed.

The love affair and kindnesses of Aunt May ended on July 7, 1952 when both she and her husband Charles were killed in an overnight head on car crash in New Mexico while driving to California for a visit with Charles' Uncle. What a sad time that was for her friends and family back in Blackwood who mourned their loss. Their funeral was held at the Charles W. McCann Funeral Home on W. Church Street and I don't believe I have ever seen a larger funeral to this day. You could not see the end of the cars in the funeral procession as it traveled to the Lutheran Cemetery located at the corner of the Black Horse Pike and Corkery Lane in Williamstown. To this day I still visit their graves and will never forget them.

I have wanted to write about life in Blackwood past for some time and also wanted to remember Aunt May Lowe for the kind and genial person she was to all the people she met. This is how life was in our small town of Blackwood during the 1940's and 1950's. Starting in the 1960's things changed fast in Gloucester Township with the expanded construction of new homes and rapid growth. I ask all of you who remember Aunt May Lowe to stop and reflect on the memories you have of her from those years long ago.

Now a question for you to think about until the next issue of the news letter. What portion, (and name the beginning and ending section locations by landmarks), of the Black Horse Pike located within Gloucester Township was brand new and not built on old road bed when the New Black Horse Pike was constructed? Also name the year or years when the New Black Horse Pike was constructed. Where would a new comer to Gloucester Township find the Old Black Horse Pike? 

"History of Gloucester Township"
The Gloucester Township Scenic and Preservation Committee has the History of Gloucester Township on sale and you can pick up a copy at the Mayor's Office in the Township Building, the book makes a fine gift.

The Tavern
Starting in April 2006, a new season of Gabreil Daveis Tavern tours will begin on each Sunday that it doesn't rain. The tours are free, donations are gladly accepted, starting at 1 PM and lasting until 4 PM. You will get a short history of the tavern and what life was like in those days when travel was mainly by waterway. Each of our tour guides are volunteer members of the committee who give of their time and talents so that the public may be better informed of the local history. Be supportive and come out for a free Sunday tour starting in April 2006.