This page was created by Anonymous. The last update was by Stephen Robertson.
Romanoff Drug store looted
The same officer from the 28th Precinct arrested all three men, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book; the clerk's handwriting is too messy to decipher his name. After being arrested for burglary, all three men were charged with disorderly conduct, an offense not used in cases of alleged looting or breaking windows. The changed charge suggested that they had been in crowds the vicinity of the store but police had no evidence that they participated in looting or attacking the store. The three men lived close enough to the store to have been among the groups of spectators watching events. Jacob Bonaparte lived in the block of West 128th Street between Lenox and 7th Avenues. Oscar Austin lived on the same street, just west of 7th Avenue, and Sam Nicholas lived four blocks south, on West 124th Street, also west of 7th Avenue. When the men appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, Magistrate Renaud acquitted them. While the acquittals indicated that there was no evidence linking the men to any disorder, the initial charges do suggest that the store was looted.
The damage the drug store suffered was apparently enough for the owner to join other Harlem business owners who sued the city seeking damages. While not identified in reporting of the progress of those actions, "Herbert M. Romanoff, pharmacist" was named as one of the seven claimants awarded damages in the New York Supreme Court on March 4, 1936, in a story published in the New York Herald Tribune. Whatever damage the Romanoff Drug Store suffered did not prevent it continuing to operate. It appeared in the MCCH business survey in the second half of 1935, and was visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.
This page has tags:
This page references:
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- "7 Harlem Store Owners Win Riot Damage Suits," New York Herald Tribune, March 5, 1936, 9.
- "Harlem: Survey - Census Tracts #223-24 (28)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Romanoff Drug Store, 375 Lenox Avenue, c. 1939-1941.