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Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

Anna Rosenberg's notion store looted and set on fire

Anna Rosenberg closed her notion store at 429 Lenox Avenue before the disorder reached it. When she returned the next morning, she found the store "in ruins," according to testimony she gave in the Municipal Court reported by the New York Herald Tribune: "most of the merchandise was either destroyed or stolen and the plate glass window had been shattered." As well as being looted, the store had been set on fire. So too was the hardware store to the store's right, at 431 Lenox Avenue. While fires often accompanied looting, particularly in later racial disorders, only one more was reported, in the next block at 400 Lenox Avenue, notwithstanding some general claims.

The fire started sometime after 11.00 PM, when Herbert Canter, who owned the pharmacy five doors down from the notion store, at 419 Lenox Avenue, arrived to try and protect his business. He remained until 5.00 AM, and testified in the Municipal Court that he saw the fire but not who started it. What Canter did reporting seeing was "a "mob" carrying bricks, stones and bottles, as well as canned goods march down the street shouting, "Down with the whites! Let's get what we can," and hurling missiles through the windows. The block on which Rosenberg's store was located saw reports of looting and violence in line with those in the blocks to the south. The fire a block south at 400 Lenox Avenue was started just after midnight. No one arrested for looting is identified as having stolen goods from the store.

Rosenberg had a policy covering her store with Royal Insurance; their fire adjuster's appraisal put the cost of the damage at $980.13. However, the insurance policy did not cover damage resulting from a riot. As a result, Rosenberg had joined other white merchants in suing the city for damages on the basis of the failure of police to protect businesses. The New York Herald Tribune reported Royal Insurance was "a co-defendant with the city in the case," although the basis for the claim against the city was that a riot had taken place, at odds with the basis for an insurance claim. Defending the city, Aaron Arnold, an assistant Corporation Counsel, denied a riot had taken place and maintained that the fire was unrelated to the disorder. The jury did not agree; they awarded Rosenberg $804.

The attacks on Rosenberg's store are mentioned only in stories about the Municipal Court trial in the New York Herald Tribune, Home News, New York American and Times Union, with the later two stories not reporting any testimony. In addition, the Afro-American published a photograph of the damaged interior of the store, taken looking into the store from the doorway. It shows the store full of damaged merchandise, with some material hanging from the ceiling visible in the foreground. The caption highlights that the store "was fired," after first being "raided," and identifies it as a notion store, but mistakenly gives the address as 431 Lenox Avenue. The building cataloged as 429 Lenox Avenue in the Tax Department photographs contained two pairs of stores, one each side of a single entrance to the apartments above that would have had the building address. In the MCCH Business survey, the beauty salon to the right in the Tax Department photograph is listed as 425 Lenox Avenue and the jewelers as 427 Lenox Avenue. The store to the right of the door was 429; the Hoisery sign visible in the Tax Department photograph confirms that it was Rosenberg's notion store, as hoisery was a name often used for notion stores. (A photograph, published in the New York Daily News and in the Afro-American, showed the damaged interior of a store that the New York Daily News caption identifies as 429 Lenox Avenue. However, in the background the store window can be seen to the left of the door, so to the right from the street side. The doors to the two storefronts can be seen side-by-side in the Tax Department photograph, meaning that the store with the window to the right was 431 Lenox Avenue not 429 Lenox Avenue)

The caption goes on to state that firefighters came to the store, but were driven away by the "rioters." Canter made no mention of such a clash in his testimony in the Municipal Court, and a New York Daily News photograph shows firefighters fighting the fire at the hardware store next door, with a hose visible at the bottom leading toward Rosenberg's store. Firefighters would have been able to get to the stores relatively quickly as the local firehouse was three blocks to the north, on 135th Street just off Lenox Avenue.

Given that the court award covered the bulk of her losses, Rosenberg likely was able to remain in business after the disorder. The MCCH business survey does not include a notion store at 429 Lenox Avenue in the second half of 1935, but instead white owned white-owned hardware and grocery stores. However, the investigator appears to have mixed up addresses, as happened for other blocks, putting the hardware store at 429 not 431 Lenox Avenue and the stationary store next to it at 431 not 433 Lenox Avenue, based on the Tax department photograph taken between 1939-1941. Visible in the photograph is a hoisery store - a name often used for notion stores - that seems likely to be Rosenberg's business, still operating, at 429 Lenox Avenue.

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