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

Irving Stekin's store, 363 Lenox Avenue, c. 1939-1941.

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Irving Stekin's store looted Irving Stekin's store at 363 Lenox Avenue was looted during the disorder. The thirty-six-year-old Russian-born Stekin also owned a grocery store in the same block, at 371 Lenox Avenue; it too was looted. He was in that second store when a stone was thrown through its window, and waited two hours for police to come to protect the business. Stekin may have remained there after officers arrived as he later reported that they could not stop the damage and looting. Alternatively, he could have observed events from an apartment above the store at 363 Lenox Avenue; he had lived in the building in 1930, the federal census recorded.

Attacks on 363 Lenox Avenue likely began around 11:00 PM or 11:30 PM. This block saw extensive attacks on white businesses during the disorder. Michael D'Agostino's business at 361 Lenox Avenue was looted, while the South Harlem Rotisserie at 365 Lenox Avenue and the laundry at 367 Lenox Avenue had windows broken. Across the street, businesses at 372 and 374 Lenox Avenue were also looted.

Stekin's business at 363 Lenox Avenue may have been a stationery store. The New York Sun and New York World-Telegram mistakenly identified his store at 371 Lenox Avenue as a stationery store, perhaps as a result of confusing which of his two businesses operated at which address. The MCCH business survey found two white-owned businesses at 363 Lenox Avenue in the second half of 1935, a stationery store and a delicatessan. In 1930, the federal census recorded that the apartments in 363 Lenox Avenue were anomalous in this area of Harlem at that time in being home to only white residents. In addition to Stekin, the six other households included three headed by men who owned stores in Harlem later looted during the disorder: William Gindin, Jacob Saloway, and Michael D'Agostino. All three men joined Stekin in suing the city for damages. While Gindin at least had relocated to another building on Lenox Avenue by the time of the disorder, Stekin may still have lived at 363 Lenox Avenue in 1935 (he resided somewhere other than the address on 128th Street that was recorded as his home in the 1940 census).

The looting of 363 Lenox Avenue was not mentioned in the newspaper stories about business owners suing the city published at the end of July, in which Stekin 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, Stekin'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 Stekin 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.

Stekin had sought $2,068 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 did not appear to have applied to the store at 363 Lenox Avenue. When Stekin registered for the draft in 1942 he still owned and worked at that business, which his wife Lillian told an enumerator for the 1940 census was a grocery store (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. Certainly, by the time the Tax Department photograph of the building was taken the sign on the business read 'Irving's Cut Rate Groceries." By the time of the 1940 census he had moved to the edge of Harlem; the enumerator recorded him living at 400 West 128th Street, on the west side of St. Nicholas Park. By 1942 Stekin had moved further from the neighborhood, to 621 West 169th Street in Washington Heights.