Celebrating 100 Years of the RCA "Nipper" Building

[phonophan79]

Found this on Craigslist...

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/eve/1198359936.html

The Camden County Historical Society is hosting a very special event on Sunday, July 12th from 2 PM to 5 PM celebrating the RCA "Nipper" Building Centennial!
The Stylish Victor's Pub located on the Waterfront sets the stage for an afternoon of good food, good drink, history and nostalgia. Located on the first floor of the original "nipper" building, the restaurant offers free, secure parking and is handicapped accessible. There's something for everyone, whether you're an RCA retiree, antique phonograph or radio enthusiast, history buff or one of countless South Jersey residents for whom the glowing "Nipper" windows have long been a symbol of home. $35 for CCHS members and RCA retirees, $40 for all others includes appetizers, entree, and non-alcoholic beverages (cash bar). Fred Barnum, author of HIS MASTER'S VOICE IN AMERICA, will present "An Illustrated History of RCA," along with live demonstrations of original Victor Talking Machines and Victrolas from the Society's Museum.

Only 200 tickets will be sold for this special fundraising event, so please call (856) 964-3333 or e-mail [email protected] to reserve your seat to this very special event.

[JohnM]

Wouldn't that be fun?! I would love to do that! Thank you for posting! Have any of you ever been to the old Victor factory in Camden? I was there in 2002 while it was being gutted for condo conversion.

John M

[brianu]

that really does sound interesting, although the price seems a little steep, especially considering that they don't even mention what if anything the proceeds are going toward... also June 12 is a Friday, I guess they mean Sunday June 14.

the building itself is a decent conversion and I always thought it was phenomenal how they reused the old building rather than do what too many slash-and-burn "developers" do these days (or did prior to the economic downturn)... buy up vacant land and cover with concrete and vinyl-covered drywall crapstruction, or demolish something interesting (often historic) and replace with the same. no matter...

the building is right near the river, and in the small pocket of camden considered the main focus for redevelopment efforts... the delaware river port authority is located there, along with a couple of other nicer office buildings, the minor league riversharks stadium, the camden aquarium, the tweeter center (or whatever that concernt venue is called now), along with rutgers', rowan's and camden county college's respective campuses, and a revamped residential spaces.

the victor, as they call the building, has some restaurant and retail space on the first floor, and is full of apartments (I think it's six stories, and they're mostly lost style apts., not condos, just rentals) and has a gym and an enormous roofdeck area. a bunch of friends lived there while I was in law school at rutgers. throughout the building is memorabilia, framed photos and advertisements concerning vtm co. and rca-victor, but mostly the earlier entity. there are a few conference rooms and a lounge room on the first floor that have machines, but not much - a nice victor VI with mahogany is the highlight, there's also an XI and an early schoolhouse machine that some idiot apparently overcranked so forcefully (I know for a fact that it used to work) that he (or she) broke not only the spring, but cracked the threaded area on the crank itself... so the decorative attempts are great, but there's the downside... another example, on one of the higher floors in a small sitting area there was an original scale with an original record shipping crate on it... one night another idiot drunkenly smashed that crate into pieces... they found out who did it and kicked him out of the building, but alas, that poor crate...

there are two other original victor buildings there, the rest were demolished in the late 90's I believe for... of course... like water, one of modern (wo)man's most needed elements of an otherwise unlivable life, PARKING. one of the other buildings, originally used as the administrative offices, now houses the camden board of education. the other remains vacant, but boarded off. the same developer, dranoff, who redid the victor apt building has the rights to redevlop it, and all proposals I've seen were for condos that would be owned rather than rented... but like so many other things, that project has been at least delayed if not cancelled because of the economy.

[phonophan79]

also June 12 is a Friday, I guess they mean Sunday June 14.

The main craigslist ad reads 7/12, so Sunday July 12.

[brianu]

also June 12 is a Friday, I guess they mean Sunday June 14.

The main craigslist ad reads 7/12, so Sunday July 12.

ugh... you're right... that's what I get for replying to this before having some morning coffee... I'm noticing the wealth of typos in my above entry too. apologies, apologies.

[phonophan79]

Just as a side note, here's a craigslist apartment listing to live in the Nipper building...

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/apa/1217019535.html

[EdisonSquirrel]

This afternoon I attended the Nipper Centennial event at Victor's Pub in the Victor Building in Camden. This was a fundraiser for the Camden County Historical Society. Fred Barnum, author of "His Master's Voice in America," gave a presentation on the history of RCA. The event was attended primarily by older people, many of whom were RCA retirees. I don't think there were many phono people there. However, I did meet a guy named Larry who sells old phonograph T-shirts and baseball caps. And the food was decent.


Rocky

[Aaron]

Glad to hear you went Rocky! And thats funny you ran into Larry there..I love his shirts!

Aaron