Expansion of the Camden Manufacturing Works

In 1905, we expanded our manufacturing complex on Cooper Street in Camden, New Jersey, adding to a site that had grown steadily alongside the steel-pen business. Historical accounts specifically identify a 1905 building joined to the older brick factory. Construction presented an unusual challenge because part of the addition crossed the site of an earlier ferry dock, where old submerged timbers made it difficult to drive the building's foundation piles. DVRBS The new construction continued a long period of expansion at the Camden works. An 1886 history had already recorded extensive improvements and additions to the original factory, while surviving Sanborn fire-insurance maps show a noticeably larger and more developed complex by 1906. Different sections of the works accommodated specialised stages of steel-pen production, including cutting, raising, piercing, scouring and varnishing. USGenWebSites The 1905 addition was part of an ongoing enlargement rather than the final expansion of the site. Further growth followed, including construction of a five-storey reinforced-concrete building in 1912 that nearly doubled the plant's size.