2143-2151 7th Avenue, c. 1939-1941.
1 media/nynyma_rec0040_1_01912_0001_thumb.jpg 2024-05-29T04:26:45+00:00 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf 1 2 No. 2143 is on the corner, so the Unclaimed laundry store at 2145 7th Avenue was to the right of the first parked car, and Sam Lefkowitz's store at 2147 7th Avenue was behind the first parked car. Source: DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos (New York City Municipal Archives). plain 2024-05-29T04:28:07+00:00 nynyma_rec0040_1_01912_0001 20180308 112523+0000 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bfThis page has tags:
- 1 2023-12-13T11:08:55+00:00 Anonymous Department of Finance, Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos: 7th Avenue Anonymous 4 plain 2023-12-13T16:17:45+00:00 Anonymous
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2022-05-23T18:26:35+00:00
9:30 PM to 10:00 PM
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2024-05-29T04:27:31+00:00
People had begun to move away from the 125th Street and 8th Avenue by around 9:30 PM and started to break store windows along 8th Avenue. James Hughes, a twenty-four-year-old Black shoe repairer who had arrived in Harlem from Atlanta just over a year earlier, described broken glass and rocks in the street on the block between 126th and 125th Streets at this time. People saying “Let’s break windows” were on the street as he walked south toward his home on 115th Street. The Liggett’s drug store on the northeast corner of 8th Avenue and 125th Street had windows broken as did the Danbury Hat store and a seafood restaurant next to the drug store on 8th Avenue, although there is no evidence of when that damage was done. Hughes asserted that the stores whose windows were being broken around him were those "where no colored were employed." He knew the area well enough to make such an assessment; for seven months he had worked in the Koch department store on 125th Street between 7th Avenue and Lenox Avenue to the east. South of 125th Street, a florist and vacant storefronts at 2324, 2320, and 2314 8th Avenue and the Arrow Sales store in the same block had windows broken, some likely around this time
Hughes followed those on 8th Avenue going to 125th Street. By the time he arrived, there was only a small group at the intersection and on 125th Street opposite the Kress store. The sidewalk in front of the store was once again cleared of people. Half a dozen police officers were outside the store, including Captain Conrad Rothengast, who had arrived an hour earlier, and two detectives from the local precinct, Henry Roge and Raymond Gill. While Hughes was among those at the intersection, a rock thrown from across the street hit Detective Roge in the head, causing deep cuts to his eye and face. Gill, his partner, claimed that as nothing else was being thrown at the store at the time, he was able to see a man appear from behind parked cars, look around, and throw the rock. Keeping his eyes on that man, Gill chased him through the crowd until he trapped him among the parked cars. The man Gill caught was James Hughes. Frisking him, the detective found five stones in his pockets. Hughes insisted that he had picked them up to defend himself after seeing the damage on 8th Avenue, and he had not thrown the rock that injured Roge. While Gill and officers who had been in front of the Kress store would later convince a jury that Hughes had thrown the rock, the trial judge decided that his target had been the windows of the Kress store, not the detective. That judgment was likely influenced by the assessment of a clergyman, several character witnesses and a physician from the court’s psychiatric clinic that attacking a police officer was out of character for Hughes.
Meanwhile, a uniformed patrolman assisted Roge into the alcove at the entrance of the Kress store, a scene captured by a photographer working for the ACME agency. At 10:00 PM, an ambulance from the Joint Disease Hospital arrived to treat the detective’s injuries. He needed two stitches and would spend ten days on sick leave after the disorder, but the ambulance physician recorded that Roge remained on duty.
While no windows were broken in the Kress store at this time, more shattered glass fell on the blocks of 7th Avenue north of 125th Street. Windows in a truss shop at 2136 7th Avenue, in the block to the south between 126th and 127th Streets, likely were broken at this time. Arthur Killen, a forty-three-year-old Black man, allegedly threw a brick through those windows before being arrested by Officer Platt. Police were only just beginning to be deployed on 7th Avenue, so if the arrest happened around this time, it would be one of the first made away from 125th Street. Killen lived on the block of 127th Street west of 7th Avenue, so would have been well placed to have joined the crowds around 125th Street, or may have been one of those drawn by the noise as groups moved up 7th Avenue breaking windows. Police moving up 7th Avenue were attempting to move people off the street without regard for whether they were spectators or participants in the violence. Such efforts at the intersection with 126th Street likely involved swinging clubs, as officers had been doing on 125th Street, with one result that John Hademan, a twenty-six-year-old Black man, had his skull fractured. The injury was severe enough that the ambulance called to treat him took Hademan back to Harlem Hospital.
Police do not yet appear to have got as far the next block. The grocery store on the corner of 127th Street, first damaged at 8:45 PM, had two more windows broken by 10:00 PM. The nearby auto equipment store, whose owner and staff had fled earlier, had four additional windows broken during the disorder, some likely around this time. Lazar’s cigar store at the other end of the block, next to the corner of 128th Street, had its first window broken around 9:30 PM. The white owners and staff of those businesses still appeared to have been present at this time. As these white-owned businesses suffered repeated attacks, the restaurant next to the cigar shop, identified as having Black owners by a sign written on the window, remained undamaged.
Attacks on store windows on the block between 127th and 128th Streets occurred on the other side of 7th Avenue as well around this time. Far fewer white-owned businesses were found on the eastern side of the street; around two-thirds of the stores had Black owners. Police did arrive on this side of the block. At 9:45 PM, Patrolman Edward Doran found a group in front of Sam Lefkowtiz’s store. He allegedly saw Leroy Brown, a twenty-two-year-old Black bootblack, throw a tailor’s dummy through the store’s window, and heard him say to those with him, "Go right along and get the other windows." The unclaimed laundry store in the building to the south of Lefkowitz’s business also had windows broken, likely by this same group. Broken windows in a white tailor’s store in the same building could also have been their work; although there is no evidence that it was damaged, the dummy thrown at Lefkowitz’s store was not something that could usually have been picked up on the street.
The arrest made by Doran was the first evidence of a police presence on this block of 7th Avenue, the result of officers beginning to be deployed beyond 125th Street as the crowds there dispersed. However, their arrival did not stop attacks on businesses. As he took Brown into custody, Doran watched as the group of which the man had been part continued up 7th Avenue and "heard the crash of glass and later observed other windows broken." There were at least two more white-owned businesses in that section of the block, but some Black-owned businesses like Williams' Drug Store at the northern end of the block may have been attacked. Its front windows were broken before someone painted “Colored Store, Nix Jack” in each of the two window panes that faced 128th Street. Those windows were not damaged.
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2021-12-04T20:20:02+00:00
Sam Lefkowtiz's store windows broken
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2024-05-29T04:28:34+00:00
Around 9:45 PM, the windows of Sam Lefkowitz's store at 2147 7th Avenue were broken. Officer Edward Doran of the 40th Precinct, in his affidavit in the Harlem Magistrates Court, stated he observed a group of people gather in front of the store. Leroy Brown then allegedly threw a tailor's dummy through the window of the store, after which Doran heard him say to the rest of the group, "Go right along and get the other windows." As Doran arrested Brown, he saw the group continue north up 7th Avenue, and "heard the crash of glass and later observed other windows broken." The unclaimed laundry store at 2145 7th Avenue, on the south side of the Lefkowitz's store, also had its window broken. Across 7th Avenue, attacks on stores on this block began around an hour before Brown's arrest. Sometime later, those stores were looted. Sometime after the windows were broken, Lefkowitz's store was also looted. Looting was not the goal Officer Doran reported allegedly hearing Brown express, so the looting is treated here as a separate event.
Sam Lefkowitz was was identified as the store owner in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, although Officer Doran was the complainant in the affidavit.
When Brown appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, he was charged with both malicious mischief, for allegedly breaking the window, and inciting a riot, for his alleged call for the group to break other windows. Magistrate Renaud held Brown for the grand jury on the riot charge, and sent him to the Court of Special Sessions to be tried on the charge of malicious mischief. When Brown was brought before the grand jury, they sent him to the Court of Special Sessions to be tried for the misdemeanor form of the offense of riot. The outcomes of Brown's two trials in the Court of Special Sessions are unknown.
Lefkowitz was one of the twenty white business owners identified as filing claims for damages against the city in stories in the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, New York American, and New York Amsterdam News. He claimed losses of $1,610.64, one of just over a third of the owners who claimed more than $1,000. The city lost court cases resulting from these claims, so Lefkowitz likely received some damages, but perhaps not enough to remain in business. The MCCH business survey did not include a business at 2147 7th Avenue in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photograph was taken from too far away to identify the businesses at the address in 1939–1941. -
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2021-05-18T18:22:17+00:00
Sam Lefkowitz's store looted
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2024-05-29T15:14:38+00:00
Sam Lefkowitz's store at 2147 7th Avenue was looted during the disorder. There are no details of those events other than the amount of the owner's claim for losses: $1,610.64. Around 9:45 PM, the store windows were broken, and Officer Edward Doran arrested Leroy Brown after allegedly seeing him throw a tailor's dummy through the window of the store and urge a group of other people to "Go right along and get the other windows." As Doran arrested Brown, the group continued north up 7th Avenue, breaking more store windows. The unclaimed laundry store at 2145 7th Avenue, on the south side of the Lefkowitz's store, also had its window broken; there was no evidence of whether it was also looted. Across 7th Avenue, attacks on store windows began around an hour before Brown's arrest. There was no evidence of when the stores were looted. Lefkowitz's store did not appear to have been looted at the time Brown allegedly broke its windows; looting was not the goal Officer Doran reported allegedly hearing Brown express, so the breaking of the windows is treated here as a separate event.
The only evidence of the looting was the store's appearance in stories about the first twenty white business owners filing claims for damages published in the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, New York American, and New York Amsterdam News. By the time the city comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. Lefkowitz was not among those whose testimony appeared in newspaper stories about that proceeding, nor did he appear in any of the trials to resolve claims. No one among those arrested for looting was identified as taking goods from this business.
The claim for $1,610.64 in losses was above the median claim of $733, one of the just over a third of the claims that was for more than $1,000 but well short of the largest claim of $14,125. The city lost the court cases, so Lefkowitz likely was awarded some amount of damages, but based on those cases, it was only a small proportion. It is not clear if he was able to remain in business. The MCCH business survey did not include a business at 2147 7th Avenue in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photograph was taken from too far away to identify the businesses at the address in 1939–1941. -
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2021-11-21T17:11:10+00:00
Unclaimed laundry store windows broken
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2024-05-29T15:13:54+00:00
An unclaimed laundry store at 2145 7th Avenue had its windows broken during the disorder. Much of the bottom half of the window was shattered, but the intact glass featured the street number and most of the store name - "UNCLAIMED L...NDRY." Two smiling white woman posed behind the window, in the store, for a photographer crouched outside, in footage in the Universal newsreel from the day after the disorder. While no merchandise was visible in the window, there was no evidence of whether the store was looted. No other sources mentioned the damage to the unclaimed laundry store, and no one arrested during the disorder was charged with breaking the store windows.
Most of the stores across 7th Avenue on the west side of this block had windows broken around 9:00 PM, but the unclaimed laundry store's window was likely broken around 9:45 PM. That was when officer Edward Doran arrested Leroy Brown after allegedly seeing him throw a tailor's dummy through the window of the store next door, 2147 7th Avenue, and urge a group of other people to "Go right along and get the other windows." While Doran arrested Brown, the group continued north up 7th Avenue, breaking more store windows. That adjacent store was later looted, as were those on the other side of 7th Avenue.
The white-owned unclaimed laundry store was recorded at this address in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935. The Tax Department photograph of the building was taken from too far away to identify the business at the address between 1939 and 1941.