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

Radio City Meat Market looted

The Radio City Meat Market at 313 Lenox Avenue was looted during the disorder. There are no details of those events other than the amount of the owner's claim for losses: $759.58. The store was on the block immediately north of the intersection of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, an area that was the site of multiple acts of violence and attacks on businesses during the disorder. There is no clear evidence of when crowds would have first arrived at the meat market other than the report that looting of a store on the corner of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue started around 10.30 PM. No one arrested for looting was identified as having taken goods from this market.

The only evidence of the looting is the store's appearance in a list of the first twenty white business-owners suing the city for damages based on the failure of police to protect their stores published in the New York Sun. The meat market was one of three business where the business name was included rather than the owner's name. The only other information provided was the address and the amount of the claim. By the time the city Comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. The meat market not among those whose owner's testimony appeared in newspaper stories about that proceeding, nor is it the subject of any of the trials to test the claims.

The claim for $759.58 in losses is close to the median claim of $733, in line with claims of significant damage made by other business-owners in the immediate area: $14,000 at George Chronis' restaurant at 319 Lenox Avenue; and $14,125 at Harry Piskin's laundry at 100 West 125th Street. The city lost the test cases, so the store owner likely was awarded some amount of damages, but based on those case it was likely only a small proportion. Whatever the award, the store appears to have been able to remain in business. The MCCH business survey includes the Radio City Meat Market at 313 Lenox Avenue in the second half of 1935. The business also appears in the Tax Department photograph from 1939-1941.

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