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

Anthony Avitable's food market looted

Anthony Avitable's business, the Savoy Food Market at 383 Lenox Avenue, was closed when crowds appeared on Lenox Avenue. Around midnight Avitable got news of the disorder in Harlem, and drove back from the Bronx. He told the city Comptroller that as he drove over the 138th Street bridge he saw crowds "just breaking into my store," the New York Sun reported. Seeing no police near the store he drove on to the 28th Precinct Station on West 123rd Street and at 12.30 AM report the looting, according to the New York Post. Officers there said they "couldn't do anything for me," and that he should contact police headquarters. When Avitable called, "a police officer at headquarters told him over the phone: "I'll have men there in two minutes." They took 45 minutes to arrive. No one arrested for looting is identified as having stolen goods from the store.

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.

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