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Tomorrow is the 95th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. The fire, at the corner of Greene and Washington just East of Washington Square Park, claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, mainly young women from the Lower East Side. The building now houses the NYU science labs, but at the time it was being used as a sweatshop. When the fire broke out, it quickly spread through all the flammable fabrics piled up in the factory. The owners of the shop had locked one of the two existing exits, preventing many of the women from escaping. The single fire escape soon collapsed under the weight of people trying to get out of the building, and many of those that were left inside were forced to jump from the upper floors. No one survived the fall. [Read an eyewitness account of the fire.]
The owners of the building escaped criminal charges for the deaths, but did have to pay civil penalties. The American Labor Movement was already in full swing by 1911, but in the aftermath of the fire, it gained a lot of support. This led to the development of many of the labor protections we currently enjoy in the United States-- perhaps the only good thing to come out of the tragedy. [Cornell has a good online exhibit about the fire and subsequent labor reforms.]
Mayor Bloomberg is presiding over a memorial ceremony outside the building at noon today (we're not sure why the memorial is a day early, but that's what we've been told.) If you're down by NYU, walk over and pay your respects-- we're going to try to be there.
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Maybe Roger Toussaint should take a minute today and remember that the goal of unions is to protect their members from exploitation, not to gain personal power. It's ironic that what started out as such a noble and necessary social goal has been itself exploited and warped into the very type of thing it once tried to fight against.
P.S. The Ken Burns NY documentary series has some great coverage of the Triangle tragedy. Anyone who hasn't seen that series should check it out. You'll love New York even more when you're done.
this calls for one hell of a panda story
oddly enough, the fire at the happy land social club happened (i believe) on the exact same day in 1990.
Actually the anniversary is tomorrow, March 25. In 1911 it also was a Saturday.
There's a great book called Triange: The Fire that Changed America which came out a couple of years ago. Great, great reporting, goes into the whole story of the locked doors and the piles of rags on the floor, basically making the whole place a tinderbox. The owners of the plant were indicted but acquitted, even with all that evidence. That lead to the writing of new laws that we have today. Great read on a tragic event.
The best movie on this tragedy was the
ABC movie of the week on the triangle shirtwaist factory fire with Tom Bosley as a supervisor in said factory.
In the book 102 Minutes, which is written by 2 NYT reporters and which recounts the scene inside the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, a lot of attention is given to the Triangle Factory fire.
If I recall correctly, the authors note that many of the regulations that were passed following the fire were reversed or changed around the time that the World Trade Centers were being built. They make numerous comparisons between the two tragedies and it is quite compelling.
I hope this building is designated as a landmark
MT, what Ken Burns documentary are you referring to? I didn't know he did one about NYC...
#9: this building is a national history landmark, and is closed to the public.
yay nyu.
The NYC documentary was by Ric Burns, Ken's brother.
102 Minutes is another excellent read. And the segment about the fire in the Burns doc is amazing.
Whoops. Thanks for the correction Julian. The segment about the fire is particularly powerful. The description of those girls falling by the newspaper reporter is absolutely horrifying. You are transported there.
that article alone should be the modern journalist's style handbook
There's a great historical fiction book by Kevin Baker called "Dreamland" that deals with several different people in the city around that time. One of the characters is a victim of the fire. Good read.
Actually, the building isn't a national history landmark. NYU owns the building and has classes in there.
#17: it's still a national historic landmark
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building, a National Historic Landmark, is located at 23-29 Washington Place in New York City, NY. The property is now used as classrooms and offices by New York University and is not open to the public
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm
I've always wondered whether that tragedy caused the incredible architectural change that overtook New York City when outside fire escapes were retrofitted on thousands and thousands of buildings.
Fire escapes are so ubiquitious that we forget that every apartment building built before the 20s (or 30s) was not designed by their architects to have those lifesaving but still ugly architectural mosntrosities in front. Oddly enough, they soon became a symbol of the city and until recently, with everybody having air conditioning, poor man's terraces.
What I would like to know is when they were first ordered and what kind of money was made by the installers. Can you imagine getting a comission on that kind of massive, if short lived, market?
By the way. Ric Burn's documentary on New York is magnificent. His pieces on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and 9/11 leave you astonished. For the 9/11 part he showed what the mainstream press quickly buried, the falling bodies. The press says is to preserve the dead's dignity but is really to make sure we don't get angry all over again. They care so much about us, don't they?
I for one believe that we should watch those pictures and video every 9/11. We should not forget to be angry.