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Harlem Economy & 125th Street
  
The Harlem economy of my youth was the economy of the depression and was based on funds generated from outside the community by jobs in the garment industry, house work by domestics, waitering and mailing in the hotels, bag handling and powering at Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station and personal service for the white folks on the upper East & West Side.

Inside the Harlem Community the economy was helped by funds coming from the entertainment industry, night clubs, bars and grills and restaurants in the area; also small mom and pop businesses located along Fifth, Lennox, Seventh and Eighth Avenues from 110th Street ot 145th Streets. Money was also made in after hour clubs which not only provided entertainment but sold "Jumpsteady" and bathtub gin and numbers.

During and just before World War II the economy was helped when the rest of Harlem not drafted, went into War work.

The war escalated Harlem into making some real money and raised Harlem's sights on a new level of employment which placed some of us in the commercial and corporate world.

Among whites, the crash and depression was a double whammy to their way of life and was devastating to Blacks also but somehow we managed to survive by becoming small adventurers in the business fraternity of the community.

Some of our business men who survived were: the Smalls Brothers, Caspar Holstein, Baron Wilson, Jack Miller, George Woods, Madame Saint Claire, Charles Buchanam, Bill Robinson, the dancer who made it dancing and others who provided for their families operating clubs, bar and grills, dance hall and entertainment spots and sportmen.

These men operated their businesses on Seventh, Lenox and Fifth Avenues, and in the side streets where most of the candy stores and small grocery stores that sold food and well as newspapers, magazines and numbers were based.

And now lets look at some of those businesses and find out where they were located in Harlem of the thirties.

Seventh Avenue with its half sidewalks around 139th Street, its trees and wide expanse was the parade ground of our area where every Sunday the member of the Greater Monarch Lodge lead by Bill Robinson or Caspar Holstein paraded.

The Avenue was also used by Prince Hall Masons and Marcus Garvey UNIA groups. The Avenue was the parade grounds for Young stains aparking their love to walk up and down. If the swain was loaded he would stop off at Spreens or go into the Monteray Restaurant for sodas and beer that cost no more than 10'cents per portion.

And while we are on Seventh Avenue, I can recall the Grey Shops which was Harlem first for a while very successful groups of Eating places. The Gray shops were well kept served excellent food at a price Harlem could afford to pay.

Dotting Seventh Avenue was also the la Marchi restaurant that John Lamar and Cherry and Herb Bruce operated. When the partners decided to split, Herb Bruce got an ax and split everything down the middle, place, furniture, everything.

Also on Seventh Avenue Joe Wells operated his legendary chicken and waffle counter. It was not the opulent Wells we know today, bit a counter cafeteria in which Joe and his family specialized in chicken and waffle for thirty-five cents, and was served hot 24 hours a day & night. Joe had hit on a formally for keeping his shop open from 12 a.m. till 8 a.m. which meant that his customers were folks on the street in Harlem after everything had closed. Joe's developed a large downtown trade whose patrons in those days would conclude a night on the town by topping it off with a visit to the clubs in Harlem on 132nd and 134th streets and then having breakfast at Wells.

Other business men I remember along Seventh Avenue were F. Noris Roach, who operated his combination business school in lofts located at 125th & Seventh Avenue and in the block going East to Lenox; and Louis Michaux who operated his book store on Seventh Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets. Then there was the building 2091 at Seventh Avenue still on the corner of 125th which housed the offices of the Pittsburgh Courier two flights up--Some dentist, a chiropractor and some small real estate offics. The ground floor housed a flower shop and Regal shoe store. Loew's Seventh Avenue theatre was located on corner of 124th Street, where Phil Fabello orchestra was the pit band, this structure is now a church. Across 124th Street was a bar still runner by the same Italian family who ran it then. As you went down towards 124rd Street was Frazier Restaurant, and Red Randolp's place.

At 123rd and Seventh was Bunny Hair Dressing parlor and as you went down the Avenue to 116th Street were small businesses, grocery stores, candy stores.

On the even number side of the street, I recall the block 124th to 123rd Streets where everything was owned by the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson whom many regarded as the greatest prize fighter pound for pound of his day.

As one travelled down Seventh Avenue on that side of the street at 118th Street, in the block was Minton's Playhouse where modern jazz was born under the greats of Dizzy Gillispie, Charlie Parker, Teddy Hill and Bud Powell, to name a few. This was the Harlem of the thirties.

Now as you come up Seventh from 125th to 135th Streets on the even number of the street was the great 209 West 125th which was the 'Culled' professional building. At 126th and Seventh Avenue was the famed Alhambra theatre where Willie Bryant and the Rose McClendon player put on these productions.

I recall a fine Italian restaurant located on 129th Street where the "Cat" used to screen the Negro customers before he would let them in his place. Seventh Avenue was loaded with Harlem larger churches.

The economy of Harlem was centered in those days in real estate and the real estate was in the hands of Lloyd Dickens and his family; the C.B. Powell, Dr. P.M. Savoy who also were later to become owners of the Amsterdam News News newspaper. The Husband family speculated with houses on Convent Avenue on the hill. The Saint Philip Church owned and still does all those buildings on 135th Street from Lenox to Seventh Avenue. And incidentally, the building were acquired for them in 1913 by two Black operators named Nail and Parker.

From 135th up to 153rd Street on the even number side of the street were again bars and restaurants and ice cream parlours.

Jock Miller's place was a door from the corner at 138th-The bar on the corner became famous under the guidance of the legendary George Woods, the place was the famed Red Rooster.

The Red Rooster George operated, was a home away from home for Negro College students from the South and especially Richmond, Virginia.

The Red Rooster was a place where you could bring your wife, or girl friend and no one dared say an unkind word around them. The Red Rooster later became the office of the Great Adam Clayton Powell, the Congressman. The Red Rooster was the only place Leo Durocher would allow his young ball player named Willie Mays to come in to Harlem. Willie came escorted by a host of guards provided by the New York Giants baseball club.
The Red Rooster was a restaurant where you could actually buy a meal impeccably prepared. And the place where George Woods who never left it, was host and interrogator. God Bless George wherever he is.

After you left 138th Street and Seventh Avenue and went further uptown, I recall the Better Pie Crust Baking on 139th, the Bamboo Inn on Hill and the Dawn Casino on the corner of 140th Street. Up Seventh Avenue at 141-142 was the famed Woodside Hotel (where all the show people stayed. At 143rd and Seventh were a few bars where "digits" held sway and in the block 143rd from Lenox to Seventh Avenue more Blacks lived than in most small town in the United States. The famed side streets of the area were 137, 138, 139 Streets are now a landmark area, on 138th Street was a row of yellow colored town houses of designed & built by Stanford While, for whites living in Harlem at the turn of the Century. the buildings were acquired by Blacks during the migration of us from the Southland during the 20th and 30th.

In the side streets Harlem economy was tied up in undertaking parlors which dotted

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