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Irving Stetkin's store looted
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 grocery 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 grocery 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 grocery 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 grocery 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 (which is what appears in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941). He may have changed the nature of that store after his grocery store at 371 Lenox Avenue went out of business. 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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This page references:
- "106 Suits Filed Under Mob Law in Harlem Riot," New York World-Telegram, July 23, 1935 [clipping].
- US Census, 1930, Enumeration District 31-920, Sheet 10A-B, Manhattan, New York, New York (Ancestry.com)
- "City Loser in 7 'Riot' Suits," New York Amsterdam News, March 7, 1936, 1.
- "7 Win Harlem Riot Suits," New York Times, March 5, 1936, 14.
- "Harlem Riots to Cost Dearly," New York Sun, July 23, 1935 [clipping].
- "Harlem: Survey - Census Tracts #223-24 (28)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).