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

"Harlem: Survey - Business, Reports (4)," 1935, Roll 82, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).

This folder contains notes from seventy-one interviews with Black businessowners identified by investigators conducting the MCCH business survey. The MCCH records contain a list of an additional seventeen businesses to be interviewed, but there are no notes from those interviews in this folder.

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Manhattan Renting Agency window broken The Manhattan Renting Agency at 385 Lenox Avenue had its window broken during the disorder. An ash can was still sitting in the smashed window of the business the day after the disorder in an unpublished image taken by a photographer for the Hearst newspapers and a similar image published in the Daily News. That section of Lenox Avenue was one in which businesses suffered extensive damage and looting beginning around 11:30 PM; the intersection with West 129th Street immediately to the south likely saw particularly extensive violence around 1:00 AM when Alice Mitchell and Hugh Young were injured by flying glass.

A sign identifies "H[ary] Pomrinse" as the proprietor, a sixty-six-year-old Jewish man who lived outside Harlem on the Upper West Side. The office was also used by Everard M. Donald, a twenty-seven-year-old Black businessman. A sign advertising rooms rented by him was visible on right hand edge of the photograph that gave his address as 385 Lenox Avenue, and a fragment of his name -- "NALD" -- remained in the window to the right of section smashed by the ashcan. Visible inside the office was a poster for the Sunshine Barber Shops, a chain of barbers that an advertisement in 1934 identified was owned by Donald. The poster was more clearly visible in a close-up view of the ashcan in the window in newsreel footage, which also showed the outline of the "DO" missing from Donald's name on the glass.

Almost all the stores on this block of Lenox Avenue had windows broken during the disorder; all three of the other businesses in the photograph are more severely damaged than the real estate office and have been looted. A cigar store, Anthony Avitable's Krasdale grocery store, and Manny Zipps' Savoy Food Market all contained the kind of items on which looting focused, unlike a real estate office. They were also white-owned businesses whereas the real estate office was shared by a white-owned business and a Black-owned business. The MCCH business survey taken after the disorder recorded the office as a white-owned business, but identified E. M. Donald as the owner. He was one of the Black business-owners interviewed by MCCH staff conducting the business survey. By the time Tax Department photograph was taken between 1939 and 1941 "E. M. Donald" had replaced Manhattan Renting Agency on the sign at 385 Lenox Avenue.

Hary Pomrinse reported his occupation as "real estate" for the first time in 1925, in the New York State Census. Before then, from 1915 to 1920 and perhaps earlier, he owned and managed a liquor store identified in the 1915 City Directory as the Ideal Wine & Liquor Store at 35 West 129th Street, living with his family above the store at least from 1915, and at the end of the block, at 2100 5th Avenue, in 1920. In 1920, Black residents made up almost all the population of that block. When Pomrinse shifted to working in real estate, he also moved out of Harlem, to West End Avenue on the Upper West Side, moving progressively further downtown, from number 915 in 1925, to number 697 in 1930 and number 260 in 1940. Only hints survive of what his real estate work involved — advertisements in the New York Age for the Manhattan Renting Agency offering five to six room apartments and private houses in the first months of 1933, and then an announcement of his wife selling 541 Lenox Avenue (a five-story building with two storefronts, between 137th and 138th) in 1936. E. M. Donald was the broker on that sale, further evidence of the men's business relationship. By 1939 or 1940, when the Tax Department photograph was taken, Pomrinse stopped using the office at 385 Lenox Avenue. In the 1940 Federal census his occupation is recorded as "own property" not "Real Estate."

Everard MacFalcon Donald appears to have taken sole occupancy of the office at 385 Lenox Avenue some time after the disorder. He had arrived in Harlem from the West Indies in 1910, aged two years, according to the 1930 Federal census. In 1928, Donald became the owner of the first of his Sunshine Barber Shops, according to an advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News. That "original store" was at 107 West 135th Street, the MCCH business survey notes on another shop at 547 Lenox Avenue record. Donald's occupation is recorded as proprietor of a barber shop in the 1930 Federal census. His father, Cleaver Donald, was also recorded as the proprietor of a barber shop in the 1930 census, having been a longshoreman in 1920. By 1931, Donald operated at least one additional barber shop, at 397 Lenox Avenue (although reported as 395 Lenox Avenue when he secured the lease), and by December 1934, he advertised four Sunshine Barber Shops, with additional locations at 409 and 547 Lenox Avenue. Notes in the MCCH business survey described the barber shop at 409 Lenox Avenue as “modern and orderly,” and the shop at 547 Lenox Avenue as “very neatly arranged.” Donald told an interviewer from the MCCH in 1935 that he felt “that his barber shops should do much more business than they do, and attributes this to failure of clientele to realize advantage of paying a few cents more for their service with the assurance of clean apparatus & surroundings.” "Negroes," he claimed, “do not appreciate finer things."

However, by the second half of 1935, Donald's “more important business,” according to the notes from his interview with the MCCH, was “in real estate and apartment house management.” That work involved “making collections & seeing that apartments are kept in condition & tenants complaints answered.” That part of his business overlapped with Pomrinse. In this work too, Donald reported problems with other Black residents of Harlem. “Encounters greatest difficulty with Negro tenants in the houses which he manages," the interviewer recorded him as saying, because "they resent having another Negro collect their rents, & often move out for that reason.” Despite those issues, Donald established himself in the real estate profession in the years after 1935, elected as a vice-president of a new organization, the Harlem Real Estate Board, launched in 1938, the New York Age reported, “for the benefit of real estate brokers attempting to retain management of properties in Harlem to give employment to Negroes.” Donald did also open a fifth Sunshine Barber shop at 433 Lenox Avenue sometime between 1935 and 1939, when it appears in an advertisement. When he married Geneva Dyer, a Texas-born beautician, in May 1940, Donald was living at 580 St Nicholas Avenue and gave his occupation as “Real Estate Broker.” A month later, Donald was arrested for allegedly taking rents he had collected on behalf of a property owner. While there is no evidence of the legal outcome of that arrest, Donald appears to have stopped working in real estate. His occupation was recorded as owner of the Sunshine Barber Shops, and his workplace as 397 Lenox Avenue, one of those shops, not the office at 385 Lenox Avenue, when he registered for the draft four months later. The number of shops he operated may also have been reduced: while the barber shops at 107 West 135th Street and 433 Lenox Avenue appear in Tax Department photographs taken between 1939 and 1941, those at 409 and 547 Lenox Avenue do not. By 1943, Donald was once again working in real estate, identified as the broker in the sale of a property on West 131st Street.
Williams' drug store windows broken The Williams' Drug Store at 2161 7th Avenue, on the southeast corner of West 128th Street and 7th Avenue, had its front windows broken during the disorder. However, no further damage was done to the store because someone painted “Colored Store, Nix Jack” on the side windows, facing 128th Street, according to the Afro-American. The text on the windows appeared in newsreel footage from the day after the disorder. The phrase was painted in each of the two window panes, each word in its own row, so that it took up at least half the window. In the pane on the left, an exclamation mark was painted at the end of the phrase, which did not appear in the right pane. There was no information on the meaning of the phrase "Nix Jack." Roi Ottley, writing in his column in the New York Amsterdam News about the looting during the disorder as targeted white-owned businesses, ended with an echo of that phrase: "THIS IS A COLORED COLUMN, NIX JACK!" Identifying the drug store as a Black-owned business "saved" those side windows. The store windows were likely broken by some of the first groups that came up 7th Avenue from 125th Street after 8:30 PM, or those that followed them around 9:00 PM and 9:30 PM.

The Afro-American mentioned the drug store only because of the sign put up identifying it as a Black-owned; it was one of two examples, with the Monterey Luncheonette, of what the story reported as a widespread practice. The drug store was also identified as having broken windows in a story about Communist activity in Harlem published in the New York Evening Journal. That story mentioned two other nearby Black businesses with broken windows, Battle's Pharmacy across 7th Avenue on the northwest corner of 128th Street and Burmand Realty two stores to north of the pharmacy at 2164 7th Avenue. Those three businesses were included in the story as evidence that there was no racial dimension to the disorder: "Both of these stores were damaged by the rioters although virtually everyone in Harlem knows who operates them." Unmentioned by the reporter was the Cozy Shoppe restaurant directly across 7th Avenue from Williams drug store, on the southwest corner of 128th Street, which also had signs identifying it as Black-owned and suffered no damage to its windows. It appeared to have been the only business on the west side of that block without broken windows. Several businesses were also looted. All the businesses that were damaged were white-owned. Those businesses are not identified in any newspaper lists or stories. An MCCH investigator visited businesses on the west side of the street seeking information about the police shooting of Lloyd Hobbs that occurred on that side of the intersection of West 128th Street. Police arrested Leroy Gillard for allegedly looting a tailor's store near the southwest corner. On the east side, Sam Lefkowitz, the owner of a business at 2147 7th Avenue, was among those who sued the city for damages after the disorder.

No one arrested during the disorder was charged with breaking windows in the drug store. The Williams' drug store appears in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935, and the owner was one of the Black business owners interviewed by MCCH staff. The drug store had been open only three months at the time of that interview, so opened just prior to the disorder. The interviewer described it as "a typical soda-fountain, confectionery, & tobacco shop. It is somewhat larger than most, is quite neat & attractively arranged, & includes a newsstand. Carries a full line of cigars, cigarettes, & candy." Asked about his clientele, the owner said it was "Restricted largely to immediate neighborhood, though its location on a main thoroughfare draws some transient trade. Owner states he makes an effort to restrict clientele to those of 'better type.' For this reason he did not sell Frankfurters, certain groups, as he says, tending to 'buy a hot-dog + sit around all day.The owner employed only one staff member, a niece. The store was visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.
Cozy Shoppe windows not broken Sometime during the disorder, "Colored Shoppe" was written in white on the window of the Cozy Shoppe at 2154 7th Avenue, on the southwest corner of 128th Street. That wording was reported in a story in the New York Post, and is visible in newsreel footage shot on 7th Avenue in front of the cleaning company two shopfronts to the south looking toward the Cozy Shoppe. The New York Evening Journal described alternative wording, "Colored Tea Shoppe," adding the sarcastic commentary that the owners had been "consistent even in the midst of the riot," "the need for speed apparently not making for simplified spelling" [i.e., shop rather than shoppe]. Both newspapers identified the business as the "Cozy Tea Shoppe," but the signage visible on the windows in the newsreel footage reads "Cozy Shoppe," with "Tea Room" in the windows running across the top of the entrance doors. The MCCH business survey and the drawing of the block by MCCH investigator James Tartar both recorded the business name as "Cozy Shop."

Both the New York Evening Journal and New York Post stories reported that the business suffered no damage, which the newsreel footage confirms. It shows both windows of the Cozy Shoppe intact and no debris in front of the store, in contrast to the two stores to the restaurant's south visible in the image, Lazar's cigar store and K. Percy's tailor and cleaning store. The glass is gone from the window to the right of the cigar store's entrance, and parts of the display are hanging out over the street, suggesting its contents have been taken, while a large hole is visible in the window to the left. The one visible window of the cleaning store closest to the camera is also missing a large section, with debris scattered on the street in front of it. The other three white-owned businesses in this block of 7th Avenue suffered similar damage and loss of merchandise. Unlike those five businesses, neither the condition of the Cozy Shoppe nor the other Black-owned business, a beauty parlor, was recorded in the survey undertaken by MCCH investigator James Tartar gathering information on police shooting Lloyd Hobbs on 128th Street just west of the intersection, suggesting that the beauty parlor was also undamaged. Across 7th Avenue from the Cozy Shoppe, the Black-owned Williams drug store did have windows broken, but those which had "Colored Store, Nix Jack!" written on them. So too did the Black-owned Battle's Pharmacy across 128th Street from the restaurant at 2156 7th Avenue.

The MCCH business survey misrecorded the address of the Cozy Tea Shoppe as 2158 7th Avenue, on the north rather than south side of 128th Street (there are several other mistakes and businesses missing from the MCCH survey for this block). The shop owners were part of the group of Black business-owners interviewed by MCCH staff conducting the business survey. The investigator described the Cozy Shoppe as "a moderate-sized restaurant, containing booths and tables for 30 people, & counter chairs for 8 or 9 more. It is quite clean, attractively furnished, & quality of food & service is high." The business had opened at this address six years ago, with three owners and five staff.

The business at 2154 7th Avenue in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941 has signwriting on the windows in a different style than appeared in the newsreel footage but must still be the Cozy Shoppe, as the restaurant appears in an advertising story in the New York Age in 1949.
Gonzales' jewelry store windows broken Sometime during the disorder, windows were broken in L. S. Gonzales' jewelers and watch repair store at 427 Lenox Avenue. The business was in the same building as two of the stores set on fire during the disorder, Anna Rosenberg's notion store at 429 Lenox Avene and a hardware store at 431 Lenox Avenue. The jeweler was likely damaged between 11:00 PM and midnight when a 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 testimony in the Municipal Court. No one arrested during the disorder was identified as being charged with breaking the store's windows.

Lieutenant Samuel Battle, New York City's most senior Black police officer, mentioned the damage to the jeweler's store when he testified in the MCCH's first public hearing on March 30, 1935. Asked if the crowds made any distinction between white-owned and Black-owned stores, he answered that Gonzales, his jeweler, had his window broken. On the larger question of the attitude of the crowd, Battle first said "there was no distinction." However, when asked "Are you sure there was no distinction made?" he answered "In many cases, if they knew it was colored, they passed the shop up." Battle's testimony is the only report of damage to the store.

Gonzales' store was recorded in the MCCH business survey at 427 Lenox Avenue. Mentions of the store in the New York Age gave the address as 429 Lenox Avenue, a building that had four storefronts. Gonzales had operated the store for sixteen years. A story, accompanied by a photograph of Gonzales, in the New York Age in 1922, just over two years after he opened the business, identified him as a Cuban immigrant. In 1935 he had one regular Black employee. Interviewed by MCCH staff, he said that in the last three or four years, during the Depression, repair work comprised most of his business, with jobs not collected his biggest difficulty. Gonzales summed up Black business as "nothing," a situation that would not improve until Black unemployment was solved. In keeping with that perception, the MCCH staff member recorded that he "Apparently takes a great deal of interest in community welfare and has been closely engaged in recent picketing activities on 125th Street." A story in the New York Amsterdam News identified Gonzales as having served as the president of the Business and Professional Men's Forum in the 1930s, participating in a campaign to promote Black business, and in 1938, joining the newspaper's drive to get Harlem's businesses to hire Black workers. Gonzales appears to have still been in business when the Tax Department photograph was taken, between 1939 and 1941, as a sign identifying 427 Lenox Avenue as a jeweler is visible.