Blumstein's Department Store

230 West 125th Street | also 229 West 124th Street, 236 West 125th Street, 240 West 125th Street | Harlem | built 1922

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1888

    Louis Blumstein moves his dry goods store to 125th Street

    Louis Blumstein, who started a small dry goods business in 1886, relocates to West 125th Street in 1888, planting what becomes Harlem's largest department store. The store draws many of the neighborhood's German Jewish shoppers at a time of open antisemitism in the retail trade, building the base for Blumstein's decades-long dominance of 125th Street.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1923

    Blumstein's replaces its store with an eight-story Art Deco building

    Architects Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler design a new eight-story Blumstein's building after the original two-story store is demolished in 1921. Completed in 1923 for about $1.25 million, it combines Art Deco and Art Nouveau details with distinctive copper awnings, large "island" display windows, and five passenger elevators.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1934

    A "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycott forces Blumstein's to hire Black clerks

    Blumstein's, a large department store on 125th Street, took most of its business from Black shoppers but refused to hire Black clerks. In 1934 the Citizens' League for Fair Play, backed by more than 50 churches and groups including Abyssinian Baptist, picketed and urged shoppers to stay away. The store gave in and became the first on 125th Street to hire Black clerks; it also introduced Black mannequins and a Black Santa Claus. Its 1923 building was designed by Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1958

    September 20

    Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed at a book signing in the store

    On September 20, 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. was signing copies of his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, at Blumstein's when a woman stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. The blade came close to his aorta without piercing it. King was treated at nearby Harlem Hospital and survived.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 46 buildings with stories in Harlem