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
McCrory's 5, 10, 25c store, 216 West 125th Street, c. 1939-1941.
1media/nynyma_rec0040_1_01930_0039_thumb.jpg2024-05-31T21:07:11+00:00Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf12Source: DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos (New York City Municipal Archives).plain2024-05-31T21:07:58+00:00nynyma_rec0040_1_01930_003920180308104732+0000Stephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf
12021-11-13T19:36:06+00:00McCrory's 5 & 10c store windows broken13plain2024-05-31T21:08:48+00:00McCrory's 5 & 10c store at 216 West 125th Street had windows broken during the disorder. Between the W. T. Grant department store to the west and the Woolworth's 5 & 10c store to the east, the McCrory's store was close to 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. No one arrested during the disorder is identified as breaking the business' windows.
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 McCrory's 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 W. T Grant's department stores were included. The United Cigar store spanned several storefronts on the corner on West 125th Street and 7th Avenue, but the other stores, Scheer's clothing store, Young's Hats, Willow Cafeteria, and the Conrad Schmidt music shop identified in the New York American and New York Herald Tribune, 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. McCrory's store 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.
Only the New York American included the address of the department store. McCrory's store was included in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935, and is visible in the Tax department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.