Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935Main MenuREAD ME: Help Navigating This BookIntroductionOn the StreetsIn the CourtsUnder InvestigationThe Mayor's Commission on Conditions in HarlemOver TimeEventsSourcesStephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bfStanford University Press
5 West 131st Street, c. 1939-1941.
1media/nynyma_rec0040_1_01729_0031_thumb.jpg2024-06-03T13:33:00+00:00Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf12The photograph is of 7 West 131st Street; 5 West 131st Street is left of the parked car. Source: DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos (New York City Municipal Archives).plain2024-06-03T13:33:35+00:00nynyma_rec0040_1_01729_003120180323123504+0000Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf
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12024-06-03T13:35:01+00:00Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf5 West 131st StreetStephen Robertson1plain2024-06-03T13:35:01+00:00Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf
12021-11-04T19:45:31+00:00Roof set on fire22plain2024-06-03T13:35:48+00:00Sometime after midnight a fire was set on the roof of 5 West 131st Street, according to an eyewitness writing for the Daily Worker. A fire was first set at a 5 & 10c store on Lenox Avenue, according to the story, a reference to a fire at Lash's store soon after midnight, then on the roof. The fire on the roof, that writer surmised, was a distraction: “This was done, I suppose, to draw the attention of the police force and riot squads from Lenox Avenue where they had concentrated their forces and were attacking the Negroes.” Police did come to the area around the building sometime during the night, even though there were few reports of disorder. A patrolman arrested Lamter Jackson for allegedly taking items from Israel Riehl's unclaimed laundry store in the adjacent building, 3 West 131st Street.
The only other mention of rooftop fires, in the Home News, did not refer to any specific locations. The story explained such fires as an incitement as much as a distraction: “One method by which the mobs stirred up excitement was to stack great heaps of newspapers on the roofs of buildings. The paper, when ignited, led those in the streets to believe spectacular fires were in progress and many fire alarms were sounded.” False alarms and the sounds of fire engines are mentioned in several newspapers, which might indicate that other roof fires were lit, or simply that calls were made to the fire department. Unlike fires in stores on the ground floor, those on a roof posed less danger to the apartments in the building.
