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

Irving Stetkin's store looted

Irving Stetkin's store at 363 Lenox Avenue was looted during the disorder. Stetkin also owned a stationary store in the same block, at 371 Lenox Avenue, that was also looted. He was in that store when a stone was thrown through its window, and seems likely to have fruitlessly waited there for police to protect the business. In 1930, the federal census records that Stetkin lived above the store at 363 Lenox Avenue, a building anomalous in this area of Harlem in being home to only white residents. The six other households included three headed by men who owned stores in Harlem later looted during the disorder who joined Stetkin in suing the city, William Gindin, Jacob Saloway and Michael D'Agostino. There is no evidence of whether Stetkin still lived there in 1935; Gindin at least had relocated to another building on Lenox Avenue by the time of the disorder.

The looting of 363 Lenox Avenue is not mentioned in the newspaper stories about business owners suing the city published at the end of July, in which Stetkin described the attack on his stationary store and the failure of police to protect his business.  After the city lost the civil case that went to trial to test the merchants' case, Stetkin's actions for damages were one of seven cases taken to the Supreme Court to determine the city's liability. Stories on the case identify Stetkin because he received the largest award, for damages to both his stores, although newspaper stories disagreed on the amount. The New York Times identified the award as $550 for damages to both the stationary store and the business at 363 Lenox Avenue, while the New York Amsterdam News identified the award as $700. While the New York Times reported that the city would appeal the decisions, there is no evidence that happened. No one among those arrested for looting was identified as taking goods from this store.

Stetkin had sought $2068 for damage to the stationary store and an unspecified amount for 363 Lenox Avenue. The New York Sun reported he was "not in business anymore" in describing the damage to the stationary store; that statement does not appear to have applied to the store at 363 Lenox Avenue. When Stetkin registered for the draft in 1942 he still owned and worked at that store, identifying it as a grocery store in the 1940 federal census (the MCCH business survey found two white-owned businesses at the address in the second half of 1935, a delicatessen and a stationary store). By 1940 he had moved to the edge of Harlem; the census enumerator found him living at 400 West 128th Street, on the west side of St Nicholas Park. By 1942 Stetkin had moved further from the neighborhood, to 621 West 169th Street in Washington Heights.

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