New-York tribune., 1920-12-02
III Others Injured, One
Seriously, in Collapse
of 9-Story Structure
at SID Street Corne.<
Clothes of Three
Found inI.ocker
Two Men andWoman Dug
FromWreckage;Seve
Leap From Windows

The rear of nine story building
at the northeast corner of Broad
way and Fifty second Street col
lapsed at 4:30 p. m. y ysterday, as
workmen who had been tearing out
its interior were leaving it. The
thunderous crash broke windows
and shook buildings in the vicinity,
and the debris rolled out into Fifty
second Street in a pile as high as a
mans head.
One man is listed definitely as
dead, although his body has not been
found, and eleven persons required
medical attention, one of them hav-
ing been sent to Bellevue Hospital
with serious injuries. Two men and
a woman were dug from the wreck
age by firemen half an hour after
the crash. The estimate of those
missing ranges from five to eleven.
Six or eight persons escaped en-
tombment by jumping through the
heavy plate glass show window of
the Sidney Bowman Automobile
Company, which occupies the Fifty
second Street side of the first floor,
with frontage on Broadway.
Two More Crashes
Firemen who were searching the.
heaps of bricks and girders for other
victims had to give up their task when
part of one of the walls crumbled aid
fell at $3.50 The firenlen barely es-
capped with their lives and We're re
called from their rescue work pcndinp
the arrival of a crew from "A Snoring
company. Half an hour after the
snoring crew got to work under flood
lights there was another tremendous
crash which brought down the re-
mainder of the rear half of the
building.
The man listed as dead IS John C.
Smith, an ronworker, of 81 McComb's
Dam Place, the Bronx.
Harry spangler, sales manager, Of
155 Ridgewood Avenue, Brooklyn, was A
taken to Bellevue Hospital, suffering &
from internal injuries and fractured Y
ribs.
Those who received medical attea-
ton on the scene and went home are:
J. W Grafton, 705 Coney Island Ave
nue., Brooklyn; David Pindar, 100
Bloomfield Avenue, Hoboken; Madeline
Brooklyn, Selma zukow, 1877 Floyd
Street, Brooklyn, and Elizabeth Kline.
353 West Forty-s Xth Street, all EN-
ployecs of the Sidney Bowman Auto
mobile Company, and Burton Calvert,
1905 Broadway; Andrew NJ. Schoake,
10 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn; II.
Harlop, 166 Twenty-frst Street, Elm
hurst, Queens; William Wcchter, 81
HemlocS Street. Brooklyn, and Thomas
J. Lynch, 1853 Eighth Avenue. all Of
whom were employed by the Paul
Chapman Construction Company.
Wife Seeks Husband
About 10 O'Clock 1-rs. Smith, whose
husband is believed to DC buried in the
wreckage, broke through the police lines
about the building, screaming hysterl
caly for her husband. It was with
dlniculty that the police restrained her
from rushing into the building, where
bricks and lronwork stiI were tnunder-
ing down at intervals. She was taken
to the " est Forty-seventh Street police
station and placed in the care Of the
naatron.
Up to early tais morniag snc was the
only one to report relative missing
Va IN yht hate Oeen victim of the
accident.
In the early 90s when the Brewster
Carriage Factory stood where the
Strand Theater il now, when the
American Horse Exchange was at Fif-
tieth Street ard Broadway. the nine
story red brick pullG,ng was known
the Stratnmore ana "a. regarded
as one OF the lauat luxurious dwelling
places in the city. It was freouented
y non. Vn.Nn ANA WIS tie scene o.
many gayeties.
began Work Last August
1t is leased at present by the Strath-
more Leasing Company. whose presi-
dent, Walter J. Sa.mon. is a horsenan
and the owner Of a winner of the
Futurity. ne demand Tor once space
in the vicinity has become keen lately
and the essses began alterations last
August, Wnlch would ut the building
10 .ccupatlDn by business firms.
The Chapman company. Of which
Paul Chapman is president, which djl
all the mon work construction of th,.
Capitol Iheater, sl,0oo,000 job, got
the contract and set to WORK at once
A temporary injunction. obtained bv
the Sidney Bowman Automobile Com
pany on the ground that the work in
terfered with their business, held up
proceedings for two days. but was
vacated
Yesterday afternoon the work had
proceeded to the point where many OF
the partitions had been torn out and,
lor ABOUT five stories or the Fifty
second Street side, the facing had been
ripped OIL, preliminary to the inser-
ton OF large windows Whore tho
.aSlng had heen removed the wall was
hcla by Snoring.
So far as could be letrned last nigh.
ene collapse Of the bNilding did not
ySfsA