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Estelle Cohen's clothing store looted
However, the boarded-up window failed to protect the inside of the store, Cohen wrote:
...they came back and broke through the windows again and smashed the cases and took the goods out. The shirts were taken off the forms, which showed that they had ample time to work. The floors were scattered with glass and goods all trampled up.
She estimated her losses as at least $800. A little over a month later, when the New York Sun reported that Cohen had joined nineteen other merchants in filing suit against the city government, she claimed $1219.77 in damages (the New York Times, Home News and Brooklyn Daily Eagle did not name any of the claimants; the New York American did not name Cohen). Unlike some other storeowners, Cohen did not have burglary insurance, "on account of not being able to get it up in that section." Given that the city lost the civil actions reported in the press, it is likely that Cohen received some compensation for the losses. While the store is not recorded in the MCCH business survey, it does appear in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941, suggesting that she was able to stay in business after the disorder.
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This page references:
- Estelle Cohen to Mayor La Guardia, March 21, 1935, Harlem Riot Response (1), Subject Files, Box 179, Folder 12 (Roll 86), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945
- "Claim $38,000 Riot Damages," New York Sun, April 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Harlem Asks City to Pay $38,000 Riot Damages," New York Times, April 24, 1935.
- "Harlem Merchants File Riot Claims," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 23, 1935, 2.
- "Harlem Stores Start Suing City for Riot Damages," Home News, April 24, 1935 [clipping].
- "Harlem Riot Claims," New York American, April 24, 1935 [clipping].