525 Cooper Street

Formerly, a rowhouse stood at 525 Cooper Street. A man named Joseph Fearon, Sr. lived there in 1897 when he passed away at age 77. Fearon was the warden of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church. Charles S. Boyer lived at this address by 1910 with his wife of six years, Anna (Derousse), and their family. Boyer was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1869 but grew up in Camden on North Second Street south of Linden. Boyer became the first president of the Camden County Historical Society and wrote a number of historical books. He also worked in his father's worsted yarn company, B.F. Boyer Company, and became company president upon his father's death. Boyer moved to Moorestown, New Jersey in his later years.

The three-story brick current building sits on a granite foundation and was constructed from 1925 to 1927. The building was three bays wide with two commercial doors and a display window on the ground floor. The main facade was altered later in the twentieth century and the window was covered. The second-floor central bay features a three-part window with decorative ironwork, flanked by two smaller windows covered in ironwork. Three sets of French doors on the third level access a shallow iron balcony. When the building was documented for the National Register in 1988, there was a small garden to the rear of the building. The first occupants of the new building was the legal firm of the Kraft Brothers, Inc.; they remained in the building into the 1930s.

Frank Neutze was born in Camden in 1894 and studied law at Temple University. The Camden local man served in the U.S. Army during World War I. By 1940, Neutze's law offices were at 525 Cooper Street, with Frank F. and George F. Neutze. The Neutze legal offices remained here into the 1970s. Joseph and William Lipkin, both attorneys, had their law offices at 525 Cooper in 1940, as did Edwin Segal. Two new legal offices, of Edward I. Berry and S. Thurman Lovitt, were at 525 Cooper St. by 1943.

Herbert Richardson, Sr. was an attorney who was born in Camden in 1891 and graduated from the law school at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1913. For many years, Richardson served as the sergeant at arms of the Chancery Court. Richardson's law offices moved from 540 Cooper to 525 Cooper Street by 1943; he retired in 1951 and was honored at a testimonial dinner attended by 250 people.

Howard R. Yokum, an attorney, had legal offices in the building by 1943; in 1940, his office was across the street at 540 Cooper. His firm was known as Yokum and Yokum. Legal firms still occupied the building in the 1990s. VOADV Property, Inc. paid $135,000 for the Boyer building in 1999 and still owns it.

Anonymous. "City Attorney: H. Richardson Dies at 66; Lodge Aide." Camden Courier-Post (Camden, NJ) December 14th 1957.

Anonymous. "Death notice, Joseph Fearon, Sr.." Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) April 8th 1997.

Cohen, Phil. Cooper Street, DVRBS, Streets of Camden, N.J.. Accessed January 7th 2021. http://www.dvrbs.com/camden-streets/camdennj-streets-cooperstreet.htm.

Cohen, Phil. Frank F. Neutze, DVRBS, Camden People. August 31st 2004. Accessed January 7th 2021. http://www.dvrbs.com/people/camdenpeople-FranKFNeutze.htm.

Cohen, Phil. Herbert Richardson, Sr., DVRBS, Camden People. Accessed January 7th 2021. http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-HerbertRichardsonSr.htm.

Polk, R. L., & Co. Polk's Camden (Camden County, N.J.) City Directory, 1940. R.L. Polk & Co. New York, New York. 1940.

Polk, R. L., & Co. Polk's Camden (Camden County, N.J.) City Directory, 1943. R.L. Polk & Co. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1943.

State Information Services LLC. 525 Cooper St., Camden, NJ, Property Data. January 1st 2018. Accessed December 29th 2020. https://www.stateinfoservices.com/property/0408/98/96/.

Summers, Vincent E. et al. Charles Shimer Boyer, DVRBS, Camden People. August 31st 2004. Accessed January 7th 2021. http://www.dvrbs.com/people/camdenpeople-CharlesSBoyer.htm.

Thompson, Priscilla M. Thompson, Franklyn N. NRHP Nomination of 525 Cooper Street Building, Camden, NJ. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1988.