I saw the building for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory located in Washington Square. Its name is the Asch Building and it stands at the corner of Washington and Greene Streets. I will admit that I ran into the building by accident as I was walking towards the Magnolia Bakery.
Last year, I read "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America" by David von Drehle. Below is my review.
One hundred forty-six people --- predominantly young women --- died in the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on March 25, 1911. For 90 years, until September 11, 2001, it was the worst workplace disaster on record for New York City. Even worse, the society and labor laws at the time did not allow for enough safety precautions that would have saved these women's lives.
The author gives a very good account of the burgeoning feminism in new York at the time, writing of the unfailing Clara Lemlich who picketed and protested for women's rights, even as men were sent after her to beat her up. He also tells of Tammany Hall, the political machine that drove New York in the early 1900s. he also writes of the situations and pursuits of the many young women, primarily young immigrant women, who worked in the factory in bad conditions and for very little pay. And then he writes a full account of how the people died in the fire --- burning, asphyxiation, jumping 10 stories to their death, the fire escape collapsing.
Reading the chapter on the actual fire, I had to take many breaks. Using accounts by survivors and newspapers from the time, the author recreates precisely how frightening and gruesome the 12-minute inferno was. It is horrifying when he writes of the "shower of 33 burning bodies" that fell through the window to the stone sidewalk.
What is disgusting is the trial that follows afterwards, where we learn that the owners had locked the doors during work hours so the girls would not steal the blouses (shirtwaists) they made -- indeed they once found 2 blouses in a woman's upswept hairdo (pretty clever, actually.) When asked the value of the goods (about 3 dozen shirtwaists) they had recovered that led them to lock the door, the answer is $25 (!). Survivors' testimonies are picked apart to lay claim they are fraudulent. It is horrible.
They also find that a fire safety company had written to the owners, stating that they would instruct the workers in fire drills that would have given them the three minutes they would have needed to escape with their lives. Three minutes would have saved 146 people who died to save their owners $25.
