Camden

Camden is a city in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the eastern bank of the Delaware River directly across from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Incorporated in 1828 and named county seat of the newly formed Camden County when it separated from Gloucester County in 1844, Camden City long served as the heart of the South Jersey region directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The city takes its name from Camden County, which was itself named for Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, a civil libertarian, promoter of the American cause, and a British judge and lawyer. Once a premier industrial center whose factories helped shape the modern American economy, Camden was besieged in the second half of the twentieth century by losses of population and economic instability as industry declined, and struggled with high levels of poverty, crime, and environmental degradation. In recent decades, a combination of policing reform, tax incentives, and investment in education and healthcare have begun to transform the city's trajectory.

Early History and Settlement

The history of Camden begins with the introduction of Quakers into the native lands of the Lenape population in the Delaware Valley. In 1626, Fort Nassau was established by the Dutch West India Company at the confluence of Big Timber Creek and the Delaware River. Throughout the 17th century, Europeans settled along the Delaware, competing to control the local fur trade.

In 1681, the year before Philadelphia was founded, William Cooper built a home near the Cooper River where it enters the Delaware and named the tract Pyne Point. Settlement, largely by Quakers, was slow. A town site was laid out by Jacob Cooper, a descendant of William, in 1773. Quakers — members of the Society of Friends — were persecuted in England for their religious beliefs and way of life, and were drawn to the region by the Concessions and Agreements, a document written in 1677 by proprietors such as William Penn, who owned a large portion of the land in West Jersey.

The city was named for Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, whose opposition to British taxation policies made him popular with the American colonists. The development of the new village was impeded by the American Revolution, and Camden was often held by the British when they occupied Philadelphia. The area then known as Cooper's Ferry — the precursor to modern Camden — saw direct military activity during this period. During the Revolutionary War, British forces occupied Philadelphia from September 26, 1777 until June 18, 1778, and because Cooper's Ferry provided an entrance into New Jersey from Philadelphia, this area became the site of military activity during that time.

After 1800, growth was spurred by increased ferry services and the advent of the railroad. Further expansion followed the American Civil War, when important industries were introduced. The city's position further improved with the arrival of the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1834, a primary link between Philadelphia and New York City. The Camden and Amboy Railroad allowed travelers to travel between New York City and Philadelphia via ferry terminals in South Amboy, New Jersey, and Camden, with passengers ferried across the Delaware River to their final Philadelphia destination.

Industrial Rise

In addition to a host of small firms, Camden became home to major manufacturing companies at the turn of the new century: most prominently Campbell Soup, New York Ship, and RCA Victor. The concentration of opportunity drew migrants from the United States and abroad. From a population of only 14,358 in 1860, the city reached nearly 76,000 by 1900.

A steel pen company, the first of its kind in the country, was established in Camden in 1860; the Campbell Soup Company plant was opened there in 1869 and started marketing condensed soups in 1897. The Victor Talking Machine Company, founded in 1894 and purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1929, further developed the phonograph in Camden and manufactured it there for more than three decades.

From 1901 through 1929, Camden was headquarters of the Victor Talking Machine Company, and thereafter to its successor RCA Victor, the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Victor established some of the first commercial recording studios in Camden, where artists including Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and John Philip Sousa made famous recordings.

At the height of Camden's industrialization, 12,000 workers were employed at RCA Victor, while another 30,000 worked at New York Shipbuilding. The United States role in World War II made the New York Shipbuilding Company the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Over time, the city evolved from a quaint village into a thriving industrial center, earning it the nickname "The City Invincible" in the late 19th century.

Camden also played a prominent role in American literary history during this era. The postwar period brought the poet Walt Whitman to Camden, where he first lived with his brother, George, on Stevens Street and later at 330 Mickle Street, today a National Historic Landmark maintained by the State of New Jersey. Whitman lived in Camden from 1873 until his death in 1892. The poet's remains rest in a mausoleum of his own design in Camden's Harleigh Cemetery, a late-Victorian burial ground in the park-lawn style.

Decline and Deindustrialization

The initial growth of Camden industrially is often credited to the "big three" employers: RCA Victor, Campbell's Soup Company, and New York Shipbuilding Corporation. These companies felt compelled to move away from Camden in the mid-to-late-20th century as they could find cheaper workers elsewhere. As the years went by, the economy changed. Companies started downsizing and leaving Camden for other, less costly locations in the 1970s, beginning the city's decades-long decline.

Built upon a tightly knit neighborhood structure, often centered on Catholic parishes with distinct ethnic identities, Camden survived the ill effects of the Great Depression and once again rose to prominence with the boost World War II gave to its industries. The combination of corporate restructuring and demographic change altered the city's trajectory after the war, however.

Camden, like many American cities, suffered decline in the latter half of the 20th century as the manufacturing base and middle-income residents left for outlying suburban areas. Loss of industry and manufacturing increased poverty and economic and racial inequalities in a city that had driven America's economic growth from the 19th into the 20th century. By the early 21st century, Camden had become one of the most economically distressed municipalities in the state.

In 2002, the state of New Jersey took control of the city by putting its own chief operating officer in charge of day-to-day city business. Accompanied by $175 million in funding set aside as leverage to attract new business to the city, the state undertook a comprehensive planning process aimed at attracting sufficient reinvestment to replenish the city's revenues. The state takeover lasted seven years, without substantially reducing the city's structural deficit.

Policing Reform

By the early 2010s, Camden's crime situation had become a national crisis. In 2012, Camden recorded 67 homicides and 172 shooting victims. It was ranked the most dangerous city in America, with a murder rate more than 18 times the national average, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Within nine square miles and among nearly 75,000 residents, there were over 170 open-air drug markets reported in 2013, county officials told CNN.

The Camden County Police Department was officially created in May 2013, after the Camden Police Department was disbanded. The Camden County Police Department took over after the police union and department — both run by the city — were dissolved. The county was able to roughly double its police force due to lower salaries. When a new recruit joins the reformed force, they are required to knock on the doors of homes in the neighborhood they are assigned to patrol, introduce themselves, and ask neighbors what needs improving. Training emphasizes de-escalation, and the department's use of force policy makes clear that deadly force is the last option.

There were 67 murders in 2012, the final year for the Camden city police department. Homicides dropped to 57 in the first year of the new police force, decreasing to 23 by 2017. The Camden County Police Department reported that the city recorded 12 homicides in 2025, five fewer than in 2024, as violent crime overall fell 6%. The city also recorded its first homicide-free summer in 50 years.

Officials in Camden County have pointed to data showing crime in the area is at the lowest it has been in five decades. "We had 17 documented murders in 2024. The last time we were that low was in 1985, 40 years ago," Camden County Police Department Chief Gabriel Rodriguez said. Despite these gains, researchers and community advocates note ongoing challenges. Camden has retained the highest per capita homicide rate among the four "major urban" cities in New Jersey for much of the last decade.

Economic Revitalization and Modern Camden

In 2013, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority created the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act, which provides incentives for companies to relocate to or remain in economically struggling locations in the state. These incentives largely come in the form of tax breaks, which are payable over 10 years and are equivalent to a project's cost. The NJEDA incentive package has been used by organizations and firms such as the Philadelphia 76ers, Subaru of America, Lockheed Martin, and Holtec International.

Projects such as the redevelopment of the waterfront area brought three tourist attractions to the area: the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial, the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, and the Adventure Aquarium. American Water's new headquarters on the Camden Waterfront was opened in December 2018. American Water was awarded $164.2 million in tax credits from New Jersey's Grow New Jersey Assistance Program to build a five-story, 220,000-square-foot building at Camden's waterfront.

The city is home to Rutgers University–Camden, which was founded as the South Jersey Law School in 1926, and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, which opened in 2012. Camden also houses both Cooper University Hospital and Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Camden County College and Rowan University also have campuses in downtown Camden. The "eds and meds" institutions account for roughly 45% of Camden's total employment.

Today, the city is undergoing what is being called the Camden Green Renaissance. Parks, waterfront access, and green spaces that have historically been unavailable to many of Camden's low-income residents are being restored. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority has released a Request for Expressions of Interest to solicit proposals for the redevelopment of nearly 16 acres of property along the Camden Waterfront — a riverfront property with views of the Philadelphia skyline in close proximity to a public park, and a prime location for new mixed-use development.

Despite these developments, challenges remain. The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act has had mixed effects in Camden. In recent years, it has encouraged new development that has changed the city's physical landscape in the downtown and waterfront areas, but the jobs picture has not uniformly improved.