Borough Beeswax: Buzzing About Tatem-Shields Post 17

American Legion Tatem-Shields Post 17, a building that has been part of the Atlantic Avenue landscape since 1926, is in Legion membership is dwindling with each successive generation of veterans, and without a budget to support its operations and upkeep, the building may have to shut its doors. Here's what locals have to say about the issue:

“It’s obviously a shame,” said Stephanie Zane, of Bellmawr, who works at the Hair Cuttery on Haddon Avenue. “Kids aren’t going to be able to have the opportunity to see these things because they keep disappearing.”

Zane blames local and municipal budget cuts for taking away any surplus funds which may have been able to help defray costs of Post upkeep. Without outside support, she said, the borough will lose community culture of prior generations of Collingswood residents.

“People worked hard to build, and maintain (that building),” said Zane.

Yvette Lewis, of Cinnaminson, agrees with Zane that “People aren’t as community-oriented as they used to be.”

“It’s kind of sad,” Lewis said, adding that her own hometown never really lost any buildings of historical value, by her measure.

“It’s all stuff that was built in the 1970’s that’s been replaced and improved,” she said.

Collingswood resident Robert Mansfield was not as sympathetic to the potential loss of that particular building.

“I don’t care,” said Mansfield, who doesn’t feel a personal connection with the building, but said he'd be much more upset if the borough were to lose a place like the public library, or Sara’s Produce on Haddon Avenue.

Mansfield considers Arts Plus and the Pop Shop to be the new stalwarts of the avenue, but also remembers other bygone establishments.

“A long time ago, there used to be a rug store and they had all these cactus in the window,” he said. “That was an interesting place.”

Lynne and Joe Hoffmann, of National Park, say they’ll always think of the American Legion posts and VFW halls that dot the South Jersey landscape as the kinds of places, “That sell hoagies every other Saturday.”

“I hate seeing any small place leave because it kind of takes away from the culture of the area,” said Lynne Hoffmann.

Lynne Hoffmann cites the G. G. Green Building, of Woodbury, NJ, which was damaged in the summer’s earthquake, as another cultural artifact that like Post 17 could be lost to the ages without angel investors.

“Their one claim to fame—and it gets wiped out,” said Joe Hoffmann. “Who’s going to restore it? “We don’t need another parking lot."