This page was created by Anonymous. 

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

Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store looted

Sol Weit closed the grocery store at 343 Lenox Avenue that he co-owned with Isaac Popiel at about 10:00 PM, according to a Probation Department investigation. About 1:30 AM, Officer George Nelson of the 15th Precinct was “on duty” nearby when he saw a group of about five people gathered around the store. Arthur Merritt, a forty-two-year-old Black painter, allegedly then broke the store window with a hammer. He and the others climbed through the windows and stole groceries — although likely not all 126 pounds of butter, ninety dozen eggs, eight cartons of cigarettes, a ham, and other food products, as well as $14 from the cash register, that the owners reported was taken. By the time Nelson got to the store, the group had run back out, according to the Magistrates Court affidavit; he told a probation officer he arrested Merritt “a short distance away.” He found two cans of beans, a can of milk, and a can of tuna in Merritt's possession, as well as a hammer. (The details of what was allegedly found on Merritt were not included in the affidavit; the probation officer included them in the report of his investigation.) Merritt denied looting the store or participating in the disorder. He was on his way home after visiting his sister, Pauline, he told a Probation officer. She lived at 108 West 130th Street; he lived at 134 West 121st Street. Both address were between 7th and Lenox Avenues, so his route home could have taken him down Lenox Avenue.



Weit and Popiel’s store was in the area of Lenox Avenue north of 125th street that saw the most extensive disorder, most of which occurred around the time the store was looted. Police were on the blocks and patrolling the streets in radio cars but struggled to protect businesses and respond to changing and moving crowds. As Merritt was the only one of the group Officer Nelson saw who was arrested, it was likely Nelson was on his own or with a single partner. Weit lived in Harlem, on 5th Avenue between 118th and 119th streets, ten blocks south and east of store, according to the Magistrate's Court affidavit, but apparently did not return to the store during the disorder.

Appearing in the Magistrates Court, Weit put the value of the stolen stock at $100. When he appeared before the grand jury three weeks later, he offered the more precise total of $126.02, according to the Probation Department investigation. Questioned by a probation officer a week or so after that testimony, he revised the total again, to $167.86. Unusually, neither the Magistrate’s Court affidavit nor the Probation Department investigation placed a value on the goods found on Merritt, but they were clearly a small fraction of that loss. Insurance paid $48.69 to replace three broken windows in the store, according to the Probation Department investigation. Weit and Popiel were not among the store owners identified as suing the city for failing to protect their business, so there was no indication if they received any award of damages.

Nonetheless, the store remained in business. The MCCH business survey found a white-owned grocery store at the address in the second half of 1935, and the store was visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941. In 1942, Isaac Popiel identified himself as the owner of the store in his draft registration. By that time he was living at 1047 Faile Street in the Bronx. Sometime soon after the disorder Weit also made the Bronx his home. A census enumerator found him at 1976 Vyse Avenue, which he said was also his address on April 1, 1935.

Arthur Merritt appeared in the Harlem Magistrate’s Court on March 20. His criminal record showed an arrest for grand larceny in 1920, which resulted in a suspended sentence, so he was held without bail. Returned to the court on March 22, he was held for the grand jury, who indicted Merritt on April 9. He later agreed to plead guilty to petit larceny, after which Judge James Garrett Wallace sentenced him to three months in the Workhouse.

This page has tags:

This page references: