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

Minks Haberdashery store windows broken

Minks Haberdashery store at 201 West 125th Street is one of the businesses in a list of those with broken windows made by a reporter for La Prensa who walked along West 116th Street, Lenox Avenue, and West 125th Street on the day after the disorder. After walking north on Lenox Avenue from West 116th Street, the reporter turned left on West 125th Street, walking west toward Kress' store where the disorder originated. The store was in the building on the corner of 7th Avenue, on the block of West 125th Street. All the businesses in that building had windows broken; to the east, the United Cigar store on the corner; and to the west, Young's Hats, Savon Clothes, General Stationery & Supplies, and Willow Cafeteria. Only Young's Hats was reported looted.

Windows were broken in large numbers of businesses on this block of West 125th Street, where police clashed with crowds gathered in front of Kress' store. 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 again 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 New York Herald Tribune also listed seven specific stores with broken windows, all of which were also identified by the New York American, and six of which were reported in the Daily Mirror. Another business was identified by both the New York American and the Daily Mirror. No reason is given in those stories for why that mix of businesses were singled out. The reporter for La Prensa identified a larger group of nineteen businesses with broken windows between 7th and 8th Avenues, not including four identified by the other newspapers. It is possible that other stores in this block suffered 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").



No other sources mention Minks Haberdashery, and no one arrested during the disorder is identified as breaking the business' windows. The MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935 records the white-owned business. The store sign is visible to the left of the United Cigar store in this Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.

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