East Camden was first counted by the census in 1970, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
Most of East Camden was built recently: 0.2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1966. Its Register listing is the Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) Administration Building. Below: maps from 1903 on and the census since 1970.
East Camden was originally called Billkitts Rental Housing and began as a planned community created to support the nearby Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot.
As he did for the rest of the facility, the depot's Chief Maintenance Engineer, A.T. Smith, designed the general layout of the town and named its streets. U.S. Senator John Little McClellan later arranged for Smith, who boasted the most intimate knowledge of the depot, to travel to Washington, D.C., and negotiate "over White House tea" with Lyndon B. Johnson to transfer ownership of the sprawling NAD complex to Johnson's Brown and Root.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2005
