Stir Crazy: Campbell Soup Company

The Campbell Soup Company may no longer produce massive quantities of soup at its Camden location, but it's still a major player on the local scene.


Bettmann/Corbis.

THEN: Serious about soup, Paris native Louis Charles DeLisle in 1902 became the first executive chef of the Camden-based Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company (renamed the Campbell Soup Company in 1922). DeLisle worked with company president Dr. John T. Dorrance on perfecting the recipe for the company’s signature tomato soup as well as the preparation of its other condensed soups. The Campbell factory on North Second Street was one of many enterprises that made the city a hub of commercial activity. Situated between the Delaware and Cooper rivers, Camden was an ideal spot for lumber dealers, steel factories, woolen mills and chemical plants.


J. McGrail/Roberts Stock/IPIN.

NOW: Other manufacturers have fled Camden, but Campbell Soup showed its commitment to the ailing city by building a new $93 million corporate headquarters on Campbell Place in 2010. The city has for years suffered from high crime, high unemployment and low tax revenues, but hope shimmers along the waterfront, where the factories have been replaced by tourist attractions, including the nearly 200,000-square-foot Adventure Aquarium; Campbell’s Field, home to the River Sharks, a minor-league baseball team; and Battleship New Jersey, a warship museum afloat on the Delaware.

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