This page was created by Anonymous.
Anthony Avitable's food market looted
Joining with other white merchants to sue the city for failing to protect his business, Avitable accessed the damage to his food market at $537. The New York Daily News published a photograph of the clean-up on the section of Lenox Avenue containing the Savoy Food Market the morning after the disorder. The market's windows have been smashed and the display emptied. Some goods appear to have been thrown on to the street; a man is clearing debris with a shovel. Another man can be seen through the window, inside the store; that may be Avitable cleaning up. The two other businesses visible beyond the market also have no windows and empty displays and shelves. Both Manny Zipp, who owned the grocery store next to Vitable's business, and Jacob Saloway, who owned the cigar store on the corner, also sued the city for damages.
The only mentions of Avitable's business are in newspaper stories about white merchants suits against the city. Both Avitable and the Savoy Food Market are listed among the first twenty suits against the city in the New York Sun, Avitable seeking $204.70 and the Savoy Food Market seeking $537, both with an address of 383 Lenox Avenue. In the stories from July reporting the appearance of some merchants before the Comptroller, the New York Post and World-Telegram identify Avitable as the owner of the food market, and the New York Sun notes he was seeking damages of $537. That evidence suggests that the separate listing for Avitable in the story from April is likely a mistake, perhaps from confusing him with Manny Zipp, who newspapers in July reported sought damages for the destruction of his grocery store at 383 Lenox Avenue (which the New York Daily News photograph shows was actually in the building at 381 Lenox Avenue).
The MCCH business survey found a white-owned meat market located at 383 Lenox Avenue in the second half of 1935; that may have been a miscategorization of the Savoy Food Market, but it seems more likely that Avitable is no longer in business. The location is a food market rather than a meat market when photographed by the Tax Department in 1939-1941, but operating under a different name, so it is more certain that he has gone by then.
This page has tags:
This page references:
- "106 Suits Filed Under Mob Law in Harlem Riot," New York World-Telegram, July 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Claim $38,000 Riot Damages," New York Sun, April 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Harlem Riots to Cost Dearly," New York Sun, July 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Cops not on Job, Say Harlem Suits," New York Post, July 23, 1935 [clipping]