Haddonfield Today 163 – March 14, 2025
- Question: The original use of the building at the corner of Kings Hwy E and Grove Street, currently owned by The Haddon Fortnightly?
- Answer: It was a Methodist Church, built in 1857. After being sold in 1914, the building was rented by the Artisans’ Order of Mutual Protection and became known as Artisans Hall. The Haddonfield Civic Association purchased the building in 1922 and subsequently sold it to The Haddonfield Fortnightly, a women’s social and service club, in 1931.
- Question: The significance for the Borough of Haddonfield of the date April 6, 1875 (150 years ago)?
- Answer: On March 24, 1874, the New Jersey Legislature resolved that “the Village of Haddonfield shall be called The Borough of Haddonfield,” as of “the first Tuesday in April, 1875” – April 6. The Village of Haddonfield had been a part of the Township of Haddon since February 23, 1865, and the Township of Haddon had been part of the Township of Newton, within Gloucester County, since June 1, 1695.
- Question: The address of the residence that is at the geographic center of Haddonfield?
- Answer: According to the website latlong.info, the coordinates of the geographic center of Haddonfield are Latitude: 39° 53’ 29.40” N and Longitude: -75° 02’ 15.61” W. That point is on the property located at 201 Warwick Road.
- Question: The location of Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh’s grave?
- Answer: It’s in the Haddonfield Friends Burial Ground (or “Graveyard,” but not “Cemetery”), adjacent to Haddonfield Friends School and between Haddon and Friends Avenues. The exact location is not known; at the time of her death (1762), the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) did not place markers on graves. haddonfieldquakers.org/history. Video: youtube.com/watch?v=yjJ51RuAwjU
Haddonfield Today 162 – February 21, 2025
- Question: The location of the only road in Haddonfield where the speed limit is greater than 25 miles/hour?
- Answer: A stretch of the NJ Turnpike, about an eighth of a mile long, that passes through the southern tip of Haddonfield. The speed limit there is 65 miles/hour.
- Question: The current occupant of the Kings Hwy East. building where the first telephone in Haddonfield was installed, in 1884?
- Answer: King’s Road Brewing Company, at 131 Kings Hwy E (corner of Mechanic Street).
The telephone was installed in Willard’s Telephone Drug Store in 1884. (Rowland Willard named the store to convince the phone company to install the first telephone there, and it worked! It took at least 30 minutes to connect to another caller.) Subsequent occupants included Farrow’s Gift Shop and Harrisons of Haddonfield.
- Question: The original name of West End Avenue?
- Answer: Union Avenue. It was laid out during the Civil War and originally was just one block long.
- Question: The name of the person for whom Haddonfield was named?
- Answer: Not Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh, but her father, John Haddon. John Haddon was never able to make the voyage to America to see the land that he purchased, instead sending his 21-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.
Haddonfield Today 161 – January 31, 2025
- Question: The name of the Haddonfield resident who inscribed the Declaration of Independence in 1776?
- Answer: Timothy Matlack (1736 – 1829).
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/fall/declaration
wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Matlack
- Question: The Haddonfield location of the oldest wood-framed house in Camden County?
- Answer: On the grounds of the Historical Society of Haddonfield. It’s the Samuel Mickle House, built about 1736 and moved to 343 Kings Hwy E. in 1965.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Mickle_House
- Question: The names of the two residents who were governors of New Jersey?
- Answer: Alfred E. Driscoll (1902 – 1975) was governor from 1947 to 1954. William T. Cahill (1912 – 1996) was governor from 1970 to 1974.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Driscoll
wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Cahill
- Question: The former names of Warwick Road?
- Answer: Mansion Avenue and, prior to that, Old Egg Harbor Road.