213-217 West 125th Street, c. 1939-1941.
1 media/nynyma_rec0040_1_01931_0021_thumb.jpg 2024-05-29T03:18:58+00:00 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf 1 2 The end of the building closest to the camera is 217 West 125th Street. Source: DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos (New York City Municipal Archives). plain 2024-05-29T03:19:18+00:00 nynyma_rec0040_1_01931_0021 20180308 111635+0000 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bfThis page has tags:
- 1 2023-12-13T11:09:46+00:00 Anonymous Department of Finance, Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos: 125th Street Anonymous 3 plain 2023-12-13T16:18:31+00:00 Anonymous
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9:00 PM to 9:30 PM
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Around 9:00 PM, soon after a window was broken in the Willow Cafeteria, Louise Thompson saw a group of people break through the police cordon on the corner of 125th Street and 7th Avenue. She had thought police had established some order at the intersection. Their cordon had prevented groups from going along the street to the Kress store, while officers in front of Herbert’s Blue Diamond Jewelry store on the east side had protected that business from further damage. As a result, Thompson had watched frustrated groups leave the area and move north and south on 7th Avenue. But then “another group broke through the police cordons and swept down to Kress’s once again,” and as Thompson watched, they “broke some windows.” Bricks hit the windows of Young’s Hat Store, the second store west of the corner at 201 West 125th Street. The hat store was in the same building as the Willow Cafeteria on the north side of the street. At least some of the broken windows in the four other stores in that building, the United Cigar store on the corner, the Minks Haberdashery next to it and the Savon Clothes store and General Stationery & Supplies store between the hat store and cafeteria, were likely the result of attacks at this time. Further west on that side of the street, in the building at 213-217 West 125th Street, on the other side of the Harlem Opera House, all four businesses — the Conrad Schmidt Music Shop, Adler Shoes, Scheer Clothing, Howard Suits — had windows broken during the disorder, some likely at this time. That may be as far as group who got past police made it along 125th Street before police pushed them back to the corners. Beyond that building were the Empire Savings Bank and Loew's Victoria Theatre. No stores west of the theater suffered significant damage other than those on the corner of 8th Avenue. A clerk in Young’s Hat Store reported that its windows were broken “right out,” hit repeatedly until little glass remained. With the glass gone, the merchandise displayed in the window was accessible to people on the street, and some of those hats were taken. There was no other evidence of merchandise being taken at this time, with most groups on the streets then apparently focused on breaking windows, and few store windows yet as damaged as those of the hat store.
Businesses, however, were no longer the only targets of violence. Three white men were also injured around this time near 125th Street, allegedly attacked by groups of Black men. All could have been on 125th Street making their way home, shopping or seeking entertainment, as they lived just west of Harlem, like the white man injured about thirty minutes earlier. Fifty-six-year-old Morris Werner received medical attention for a stab wound that he claimed was the result of being attacked by “by several unknown colored men” near the southwest corner of 125th Street and 7th Avenue. While typical of violence prosecuted as assault at other times in 1935, the injury was one of only two stabbings among the fifty-four assaults that would be reported in the disorder. Louise Thompson, with a group on that corner, did not mention such an assault. Nor did any of the journalists in the area write about it or police arrest anyone for being responsible. Werner may not have been the only white man injured at that intersection around this time. Three of the white journalists gathered by the police perimeter there suffered injuries. Harry Johnson, who worked for the New York American, was reportedly beaten by three Black men, leaving him with injuries to his face that required him to call his editors and ask them to send another reporter to take his place. Everett Breuer, a Daily News photographer, and James Martin, his assistant, were reportedly hit in the face by rocks as they took images of a group of Black men and women in the island in the middle of 7th Avenue. Those forms of violence were typical during the disorder, unlike Werner’s stab wounds. In neither case did police arrest anyone.
At the other end of the block of 125th Street on which the Kress store was located, two additional white men suffered injuries. Maurice Spellman received medical attention for cuts around his right eye that he said were the result of being attacked by several Black men around 9:00 PM at 8th Avenue and 125th Street. Groups of people had gathered there trying to get to the Kress store, but, as with the alleged assault on Werner, no journalist wrote about the attack, nor did police arrest anyone. At the same time a block further west on St. Nicholas Avenue up at 127th Street, Timothy Murphy, a twenty-nine-year-old rock driller on his way home, was knocked to the ground and hit and kicked by a group of Black men. He claimed one of those men said, “You white son-of-a-bitch, take it now,” a phrase that offered little explanation for the violence. While it referenced Murphy’s race, it did not make clear that was why he had been attacked let alone make any connection to rumors about a boy beaten or killed at the Kress store. There were few businesses in the area, so it was not somewhere groups would have come to break store windows. Rumors from 125th Street, however, would have reached residents.
Police witnessed the attack on Murphy unlike the other alleged assaults on white men at this time. Patrolman George Conn, in a radio car on its way to 125th Street, saw a group of around ten men gathered around Murphy. Jumping out of the car, Conn drew his pistol and fired a shot in the air to disperse the group as he ran toward them. As the men scattered, he fired a second shot at the group, hitting Paul Boyett, a twenty-year-old Black garage worker, in his right shoulder. Despite the wound, Boyett kept running toward his home, only a few buildings away at 310 West 127th Street. Conn caught up to him in the hallway and arrested Boyett despite his insistence that he was “an innocent onlooker” drawn to the disturbance who had not hit or kicked Murphy. Later, a trial jury did accept Boyett’s explanation and acquitted him. No one else was arrested for the assault on Murphy, who suffered cuts and bruises to his head, face and body, and a broken nose.
Somewhere on 125th Street, another police officer also responded to an assault on a white man around this time. Detective William Boyle attempted to “rescue an unknown white man being assaulted.” That man was likely having bricks and rocks thrown at him, as Boyle was hit in the left ankle. They may be the two men in a photograph published by the Daily News. By 9:15 PM, Boyle was in the 28th Precinct station on West 123rd Street. Dr. Sayet, who earlier in the day had treated the Kress store staff bitten by Lino Rivera, arrived in an ambulance from Harlem Hospital at that time to treat Boyle’s cuts and bruises. The detective then remained on duty. Columbia University student Hector Donnelly's experience suggests that Detective Boyle was not alone in intervening to prevent encounters between white pedestrians and Black residents from escalating into assaults. He reported being hit on the shoulder by a milk bottle while walking on West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue having gone to the neighborhood unaware of the disorder. As several members of the crowd on the street then moved toward him, he knew he was "in for it." A policeman came running, however, and dragged Donnelly away. Although the officer told him, "You better stay out of here," the white student met a reporter he knew so decided to stay "to watch the excitement." He remained despite further warnings from police until he "got into more trouble." A group of four or five men bumped him as they passed him on the sidewalk and then stopped and continued to push him. Again, a police officer came and "broke up the trouble." After that encounter, Donnelly decided that he needed to leave the neighborhood.
There would have been many more white men and women on the streets around 125th Street at this time than those identified as being assaulted, even though they were far outnumbered by Black residents. The presence of white men and women on West 125th Street and the nearby blocks of the avenues was nothing out of the ordinary, as can be seen in a photograph of the corner of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue taken in 1938. Columbia University student Hector Donnelly, unaware of the disorder, would not have been alone in going to the area that evening as usual. The small number of the white men and women in the area who were assaulted indicates that groups who directed violence at white individuals rather than white-owned businesses were a very small portion of those reacting to events at the Kress store. That violence occurred in the midst of the disorder; only those who attacked Timothy Murphy may have sought out someone to assault. The others encountered white men while focused on 125th Street and the Kress store. While at odds with later claims that the disorder was targeted at property, these attacks were in keeping with sentiments Thompson and Moss heard expressed in the crowds trying to get to the Kress store. That those rumored to have been involved in the boy’s death were white men mattered to at least some of Harlem’s Black residents, who directed their anger toward white individuals as well as white property. Crucially, unlike the disorders of subsequent decades, that anger would have found targets among the significant numbers of white New Yorkers who in 1935 still frequented as well as worked in the businesses around 125th Street.
While people on the four corners of 8th Avenue and 125th Street had not yet begun to move away and break windows at the time of the alleged attacks on the two white men, at the other end of the block more windows were being broken on 7th Avenue. On the northwest corner of 127th Street, around 9:00 PM, a window was broken in the saloon, next to the grocery store damaged a few minutes earlier. Three more windows were broken in the tailor and cleaning store in the middle of that block that had had a window broken earlier. As was the case earlier, those attacks do not appear to be the actions of a crowd acting together, but of small groups and individuals. They could have been the same people who had thrown objects at windows on this block earlier, or those people could have moved on and been replaced by others coming from or to 125th Street. There was still no evidence that police were in the area to deter or respond to these attacks. The white owners and staff of those businesses were still present; there was no indication that they were targeted by those breaking windows.
Fourteen blocks south of 125th Street, Lino Rivera left his home, where he had been since leaving the Kress store, at 9:00 PM. He had a cup of coffee somewhere relatively close by, where he saw “a lot of trouble around.” Whatever was happening likely involved some of the people that Carlton Moss had described people going south on 7th Avenue from 125th Street beginning around 8:30 PM. However, Rivera did not hear any explanation for the “trouble” that connected it with what had happened to him hours earlier. Perhaps still wary after that experience, he decided to cut short his plans for the evening, and returned home before 9:30 PM.
As Rivera was arriving home, Louise Thompson also decided to leave the streets and go to the home of a friend. For her, however, it was the lack of “trouble” and the diminishing number of people at 125th Street and 7th Avenue that appear to have prompted that decision. Police had cleared 125th Street of those who broke through the cordon half an hour earlier, and groups of people unable to reach the Kress store again began to disperse up and down 7th Avenue. Thompson likely joined those going south on 7th Avenue; when she returned about an hour later, it would be at 7th Avenue and 118th Street. -
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2021-11-11T20:21:09+00:00
Scheer's Capitol clothing store windows broken
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2024-05-29T03:21:16+00:00
The Scheer's Capitol clothing store at 217 West 125th Street had windows broken during the disorder. Opposite the W. T. Grant and Blumstein department stores, the clothing store was four buildings from the intersection of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, on the block of West 125th Street where police clashed with crowds gathered in front of Kress' store.
Windows were broken in large numbers of businesses on this block of West 125th Street. Two newspapers reported very extensive damage. Attacks on this store likely began around 7:30 PM or 8:00 PM, with more windows likely broken around 9:00 PM and further damage possibly done around 10:30 PM. "Practically every store window on the block had been shattered by 10 PM," according to the Home News; that damage was both less extensive and took longer in the New York Herald Tribune story: "By midnight one or more windows had been smashed in almost every storefront" on that block between 7th and 8th Avenues (although in another mention of that damage in the story it had been done by 8 PM). Scheer's Capitol clothing store was one of seven businesses identified as having broken windows by the New York Herald Tribune, New York American, and Daily Mirror. No reason is given in those stories for why that mix of businesses were singled out. They were not just the largest stores, although the Blumstein and McCrory's department stores were included, together with the W. T Grant 5 & 10c store in the New York American and Daily Mirror. The United Cigar store spanned several storefronts on the corner on West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, but the other stores, the Willow Cafeteria, and Young's Hats, and Conrad Schmidt Music Shop identified in the New York American and New York Herald Tribune, did not have similarly large displays. Scheer's clothing store, which the New York Herald Tribune described as "a small clothing store," appears to have had an unusually narrow storefront, the space occupied by Westin Clothes in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941. All the stores identified by these newspapers were located between Kress' store at 256 West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, so may have been the damaged stores that reporters could see. Scheer's Capitol clothing store is not one of the nineteen businesses on this block with broken windows listed by a reporter for La Prensa who walked along West 125th Street on the day after the disorder. That list included businesses west of Kress' store. It may have been omitted because it had only minor damage; the La Prensa reporter concluded his list by noting he had not included others as they had only suffered minor damage ("y otras mas que por ser los danos ocasionados relativamente pequeños no creimus de interes catalogar entre los establecimientos ya mencionados").
Only the New York American provided an address for Scheer's clothing store, 213 West 125th Street. The business is not recorded at that address in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935. The store's location at 217 West 125th Street appeared in an advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News on March 24, 1934. That address is missing from the MCCH business survey. A second branch of the store appears in the advertisement, at 109 West 125th Street. That address may be a mistake, as the MCCH business survey records a Scheer's Capitol clothing store at 139 West 125th Street, an address that also appears in a advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News on March 30, 1940. The store at 217 West 125th Street does not appear in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941, indicating it closed sometime between 1935 and 1940. -
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2021-11-11T21:49:10+00:00
Conrad Schmidt music shop windows broken
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2024-05-29T03:22:05+00:00
Conrad Schmidt music shop at 213 West 125th Street had windows broken during the disorder. Opposite the W. T. Grant department store, the music shop was four buildings from the intersection of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, on the block of West 125th Street where police clashed with crowds gathered in front of Kress' store.
Windows were broken in large numbers of businesses on this block of West 125th Street. Two newspapers reported very extensive damage. Attacks on this store likely began around 7:30 PM or 8:00 PM, with more windows likely broken around 9:00 PM and further damage possibly done around 10:30 PM. "Practically every store window on the block had been shattered by 10 PM, according to the Home News. That damage was both less extensive and took longer in the New York Herald Tribune story: "By midnight one or more windows had been smashed in almost every storefront" on that block between 7th and 8th Avenues (although in another mention of that damage in the story it had been done by 8 PM). The music shop was one of a small number of businesses identified as having broken windows by the New York Herald Tribune and New York American (but was missing from the Daily Mirror, which otherwise mentioned the same businesses). No reason was given in those stories for why that mix of businesses was singled out. They were not just the largest stores, although the Blumstein and McCrory's department stores were included, together with the W. T Grant 5 & 10c store in the New York American. The United Cigar store spanned several storefronts on the corner on West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, but the other stores, the Willow Cafeteria, Young's Hats, and Scheer's clothing store, did not have similarly large displays. All the stores identified by these newspapers were located between Kress' store at 256 West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, so may have been as far as groups who broke through the police cordon at 125th and 7th Avenue at around 9:00 PM reached. The music shop was also one of the nineteen businesses on this block with broken windows listed by a reporter for La Prensa who walked along West 125th Street on the day after the disorder. That list included businesses west of Kress' store. Other stores on the block might also have been damaged; the La Prensa reporter concluded his list by noting he had not included others as they had only suffered minor damage ("y otras mas que por ser los danos ocasionados relativamente pequeños no creimus de interes catalogar entre los establecimientos ya mencionados").
Only the New York American provided an address for the Conrad Schmidt music shop. It also appeared at that address in the MCCH business survey as a white-owned business in the second half of 1935, but was not in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941 in which a liquor store occupied the location (a liquor store shared the address with the music shop in the MCCH business survey). In 1937, Frances Kraft Reckling, who identified herself as a former staff member, advertised a music shop in the New York Amsterdam News located across the street, above the Woolworth's store at 210 West 125th Street. -
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Howard suits store windows broken
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2024-05-29T03:22:53+00:00
The Howard Suits store at 217 West 125th Street had windows broken during the disorder. Opposite the W. T. Grant and Blumstein department stores, the clothing store was four buildings from the intersection of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, on the block of West 125th Street where police clashed with crowds gathered in front of Kress' store.
Windows were broken in large numbers of businesses on this block of West 125th Street. Two newspapers reported very extensive damage. Attacks on this store likely began around 7:30 PM or 8:00 PM, with more windows likely broken around 9:00 PM and further damage possibly done around 10:30 PM. "Practically every store window on the block had been shattered by 10 PM, according to the Home News; that damage was both less extensive and took longer in the New York Herald Tribune story: "By midnight one or more windows had been smashed in almost every storefront" on that block between 7th and 8th Avenues (although in another mention of that damage in the story it had been done by 8 PM). Howard Suits was one of a small number of businesses identified as having broken windows by the Daily Mirror; the New York Herald Tribune and New York American mentioned the same seven businesses other than this clothing store. No reason is given in those stories for why that mix of businesses were singled out. They were not just the largest stores, although the Blumstein and McCrory's department stores were included, together with the W. T Grant 5 & 10c store in the New York American. The United Cigar store spanned several storefronts on the corner on West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, but the other stores, the Conrad Schmidt music shop, Willow Cafeteria, Young's Hats, and Scheer's clothing store, did not have similarly large displays. All the stores identified by these newspapers were located between Kress' store at 256 West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, so may have been the damaged stores that reporters could see. The music shop is not one of the nineteen businesses on this block with broken windows listed by a reporter for La Prensa who walked along West 125th Street on the day after the disorder. That list included businesses west of Kress' store. Other stores on the block might also have been damaged; the La Prensa reporter concluded his list by noting he had not included others as they had only suffered minor damage ("y otras mas que por ser los danos ocasionados relativamente pequeños no creimus de interes catalogar entre los establecimientos ya mencionados").
The Daily Mirror did not give an address for the store, and mispelled the name as "Coward suits." The store does not appear in the MCCH business survey, which did not record any businesses at 217 West 125th Street. Howard suits is visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941, between two other locations that had windows broken, Adler shoes at 215 West 125th Street, and the former location of Scheer's clothing store at 217 West 125th Street.