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

[Newsreel] "Aftermath of 1935 Harlem riot," Pathe Newsreels, 1935, 0:09 (Getty Images).

This newsreel can be viewed on Getty Images.

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Cleaners & Dyers window broken A Cleaners & Dyers store at 347 Lenox Avenue had its window broken during the disorder. Almost all of the left of the two panes of glass making up the window has been smashed, as well as about a third of the panel to the right. Only the first two and last two letters of the store name remain — "CL" and "RS." The store name and street number appear in a square sign hanging over the street, in the top left of footage in the Pathe newsreel from the day after the disorder. Clothing hanging on two tiers of bars are visible in the store, behind the counter, suggesting that the store may not have been looted. No other sources mention the damage to the store, and no one arrested during the disorder was charged with breaking the window.

This store was located in the middle of a block of Lenox Avenue that saw multiple businesses damaged and looted, although none reported in the five buildings north of 347 Lenox Avenue. On the south side of the Cleaners & Dyers, an unknown store at 345 Lenox Avenue partially visible on the left edge of the footage in the Pathe Newsreel also had windows broken. To the left of that store, at 343 Lenox Avenue, Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store was looted. On the northwest corner of West 127th Street, the drug store at 339 Lenox Avenue had windows broken, and flying glass injured William Brown. Just around the corner on West 127th Street, a candy store was looted. A reporter for the Afro-American who apparently walked up this side of Lenox Avenue from 125th Street to 128th Street, which included the block on which this store was located, counted twenty-two windows broken in the approximately forty businesses on that stretch of the street.

The white-owned Cleaners & Dyers store is recorded as still at 347 Lenox Avenue in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935. By the time the Tax Department photograph of the address was taken, between 1939 and 1941, the storefront was vacant, with signs of construction work being done.
Unknown store window broken An unknown store at 345 Lenox Avenue had its windows broken during the disorder. The bottom half of the display window to the right of the entrance was gone. That was the only section of the store visible in the Pathe newsreel from the day after the disorder, on the bottom left of footage focused on the damaged window of the Cleaners & Dyers store at 347 Lenox Avenue. No indication of the type of business is visible in the footage, and the MCCH business survey does not record a store at the address in the second half of 1935. By the time the Tax Department photograph was taken, between 1939 and 1941, the Empire Market occupied 345 Lenox Avenue, but there is no evidence that business was there in March 1935. No other sources mention the damage to the store, and no one arrested during the disorder was charged with breaking the window.

This store was located in the middle of a block of Lenox Avenue that saw multiple businesses damaged and looted, although none reported in the five buildings north of 347 Lenox Avenue other than the Cleaners & Dyers on the right hand side of this store. To the left of the store, on the other side of the entrance to upper floors, Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store at 343 Lenox Avenue was looted. Further south, on the corner of West 127th Street, the drug store at 339 Lenox Avenue had windows broken, and flying glass injured William Brown. Just around the corner on West 127th Street, a candy store was looted. A reporter for the Afro-American who apparently walked up this side of Lenox Avenue from 125th Street to 128th Street, which included the block on which this store was located, counted twenty-two windows broken, in the approximately forty businesses on that stretch of the street.