This town of Haddonfield has always enjoyed the
reputation
of being an old established community where people are barn, raised as
children, and live as adults all their lives without having their roots
shaken by change of address. For the most part this is
true,
but there is a part of Haddonfield’s history that through the years has
passed unnoticed and unmentioned by most of the townspeople because
they
took it as a matter of course and paid no attention to it. This
is
the fact that Haddonfield was once regarded as a summer resort for
affluent
families from Philadelphia and Camden - people who wished to get away
from
the cities into the suburbs during the summer months. Bear in
mind
that the seashore was not readily accessible at the turn of the century
as it is for us now. A trip to the shore was a long arduous
journey
and the head of a family could not commute. Haddonfield was a
close
point to reach, and it became a summer resort for city folk who in
summer
time wished to be in the country for their vacations. Don’t
misunderstand;
the town was not interrupted by a widespread migration in the summer,
but
scattered resident all over town rented rooms to vacationers. A
large
white house on Warwick Road opposite the E. T. Gill farmhouse was
available
for rooms and board, and a house on East Cottage Avenue was rented
every
year by a Philadelphia family. Many of our old well known
Haddonfield
families regularly came to town aa resorters and eventually move here
permanently.
To name them without permission would be improper, but they would be
well
known. Haddonfield was on a countrified little village, a resort
for a restful, relaxing vacation.