[LIB10394] - Eldridge R. Johnson Park, and the former Cooper Library which stands at the park’s center, represent one of the most significant and unique cultural, historic, and artistic resources in the City of Camden and the State of New Jersey.  The site has been designated as a State and Federal Historic Landmark based not only on the elements which remain from the peak of its use in the early 19th century, but also due to its importance as a reflection of a period of Camden’s industrial history. Local inventor and philanthropist Eldridge R. Johnson, whose modern phonograph helped launch RCA, donated the Neo-Classical Cooper Branch Library and surrounding Johnson Park to the City of Camden. Built between 1914 and 1930, the complex occupies an entire block near Camden's waterfront on the Rutgers-Camden campus. When it opened in 1918, the site became southern New Jersey's foremost cultural and recreational center. Today, the library houses the Walt Whitman Arts Ce

[LIB4976] - Sadly in the years between 1986 and 2004 the Carnegie Library stood as a symbol of much that was wrong with Camden- physical decay, political inertia, and an indifference to both the heritage of the past and the need to instill a love of books and learning in Camden's children. A few interested parties attempted to get government help in preserving the building, but met with little success. Happily, the new wind that began to blow through Camden in 2003 brought wonderful news on March 20, 2004, when the Camden Redevelopment Agency announced that funds had been set side for the preservation and restoration of the Carnegie Library. [Read more here]