The Ghost of Twelfth Street
This morning I walked out of my building and down the street toward Avenue A when I saw something that made me stop. Written in colored chalk on the sidewalk in front of a building a few feet from my own was this:
Josephine Carlisi
Age 31
Lived at 502 East 12 Street
Died March 25, 1911
Triangle Factory Fire
Who wrote this? It was clear by the date why it was written. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a horrifying event; immigrant seamstresses, many of them teenagers were trapped in a blazing building with almost no way out but to jump. And many did jump from the eighth ninth floors of the building and died right in front of witnesses. The reasons for the senseless death of 146 young men and women (most of whom lived in my neighborhood and the Lower East Side) were typical. The factory, located in the Asch Building (now the Brown Building) on Washington Place and Greene Streets—today a posh neighborhood—was a sweatshop—unsanitary, unsafe, rarely, if ever inspected, where individuals worked for long hours for slave wages. Profit was the main goal. A fire broke out and the exits were either ablaze, locked, or useless. The story in all of its terrible detail was recounted in a New York Times article the day after the fire.
The owners of the building, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck who happened to be there at the time, somehow got out with the Blanck children and a governess. The fled over the roof.
I knew about the tragedy when I saw the chalk writing this morning and it just stunned me for a moment to think that Josephine once lived in a building so close to my own. It reminded me that my neighborhood was one of poor immigrants. I looked around and tried to see my street in 1911, filled with men and women on their ways to and from work.
I was on my way to work this morning. Nearly 100 years ago, Josephine Carlisi went to work and didn’t come back.
In the aftermath of the fire, factory safety regulations were passed, higher sanitation standards were put in place, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, formed in 1900, solidified its place in the fight for social reform. The owners were acquitted of wrongdoing because it could not be proved that they knew the alternative exit was locked. Three years after the fire they settled a civil suit: $75 per lost life.
Curious to find out who was behind the chalk writing. I googled Josephine Carlisi and found CHALK: “a community wide commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire,” as des
cribed on the web site Community Walk. On the March 25 anniversary [of the Triangle Factory fire], we spread out across the city to inscribe in chalk the victims names & ages in front of their former homes. For photos of the project go here
Cornell University has created a comprehensive exhibit and Web site about the fire, with photos and illustrations, documents, transcripts and more .
I’m glad that Josephine (or Josephina, as she was listed in a roster of the dead) who lived on my block, is remembered. I will think about her from time to time when I walk by her building.
Josephine Carlisi
Age 31
Lived at 502 East 12 Street
Died March 25, 1911
Triangle Factory Fire
Who wrote this? It was clear by the date why it was written. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a horrifying event; immigrant seamstresses, many of them teenagers were trapped in a blazing building with almost no way out but to jump. And many did jump from the eighth ninth floors of the building and died right in front of witnesses. The reasons for the senseless death of 146 young men and women (most of whom lived in my neighborhood and the Lower East Side) were typical. The factory, located in the Asch Building (now the Brown Building) on Washington Place and Greene Streets—today a posh neighborhood—was a sweatshop—unsanitary, unsafe, rarely, if ever inspected, where individuals worked for long hours for slave wages. Profit was the main goal. A fire broke out and the exits were either ablaze, locked, or useless. The story in all of its terrible detail was recounted in a New York Times article the day after the fire.
The owners of the building, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck who happened to be there at the time, somehow got out with the Blanck children and a governess. The fled over the roof.
I knew about the tragedy when I saw the chalk writing this morning and it just stunned me for a moment to think that Josephine once lived in a building so close to my own. It reminded me that my neighborhood was one of poor immigrants. I looked around and tried to see my street in 1911, filled with men and women on their ways to and from work.
I was on my way to work this morning. Nearly 100 years ago, Josephine Carlisi went to work and didn’t come back.
In the aftermath of the fire, factory safety regulations were passed, higher sanitation standards were put in place, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, formed in 1900, solidified its place in the fight for social reform. The owners were acquitted of wrongdoing because it could not be proved that they knew the alternative exit was locked. Three years after the fire they settled a civil suit: $75 per lost life.
Curious to find out who was behind the chalk writing. I googled Josephine Carlisi and found CHALK: “a community wide commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire,” as des
cribed on the web site Community Walk. On the March 25 anniversary [of the Triangle Factory fire], we spread out across the city to inscribe in chalk the victims names & ages in front of their former homes. For photos of the project go here Cornell University has created a comprehensive exhibit and Web site about the fire, with photos and illustrations, documents, transcripts and more .
I’m glad that Josephine (or Josephina, as she was listed in a roster of the dead) who lived on my block, is remembered. I will think about her from time to time when I walk by her building.
Comments
Who knew how quickly this school would transform from providing educational steps up to new citizen to one of the most expensive, private universities for the children of the wealthy in the world?
Love, C.