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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 set in stores often accompanied looting, particularly in later racial disorders, only one more was reported, at 400 Lenox Avenue, a block to the south. No one arrested for looting is identified as having stolen goods from Rosenberg's store.

The fire was started sometime between 11.00 PM and midnight. Herbert Canter, who owned the pharmacy five doors down from the notion store, at 419 Lenox Avenue, arrived at 11.00PM to try and protect his business. He remained until 5.00 AM, and saw the fire but not who started it, according to the reports of his testimony in the Home News and New York Herald Tribune. What Canter did report 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 windows." A block north, David Schmoockler, the manager of William Feinstein’s liquor store at 452 Lenox Avenue, also saw a crowd of around thirty people. Between 11.00 PM and midnight he watched as the crowd "created disturbances, hurled various missiles, broke store windows, set fire to some stores, pillaged others, and in general damaged property of various merchants in the locality,"  according to Justice Shalleck's summary of his testimony in the Municipal Court. The fire a block south at 400 Lenox Avenue was started just after midnight. A little over an hour later, Feinstein's liquor store was attacked by a crowd of thirty to forty people.

A photograph of firefighters attempting to put out the fire in the hardware store next door to the notion store, published in the Daily News, offers further evidence of the fire at the notion store. In the original photograph (which can be viewed at Getty Images), cropped from the published version, a hose runs across the photograph, in the direction of Rosenberg's notion store to the left, indicating a fire in that direction. (The captions to both versions misidentify the location. Details in the image identify it as of 431 Lenox Avenue). In addition, two photographs taken the next day focused on the hardware store capture glimpses of the damage to the exterior of the notion store. Part of the storefront appears on the left of an Associated Press photograph, with no glass remaining in its display window, which has been emptied of merchandise. Damage to the exterior wall below the window could be the result of the fire. Inside the store is an L-shaped counter on which a range of different goods are stacked (which distinguished the notion store from the hardware store next to it, which had a central display table). There may be some damaged items on the ground, but neither the ceiling nor the shelves and counter show the fire damage visible in the store to the right. The whole storefront appears in a second photograph, published in the Daily Mirror, to the left of a man on a ladder boarding up the hardware store windows. Unfortunately, the details are not visible in the microfilm copy of the image.

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. (And obliquely in captions to photographs of the hardware store next door, which in some cases is misidentified as a notion store and as being at 429 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 hardware and grocery stores. However, the investigator appears to have mixed up addresses, as happened for other blocks, putting the hardware store at number 429 not 431 Lenox Avenue and the stationary store next to it at number 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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