Brown Building (originally Asch Building)

History and architecture

Now a New York University science building, this neo- Renaissance-style loft building was constructed in 1900-01 for investor Joseph J. Asch. On March 25, 1911, it was the site of one of the worst industrial disasters in American history, when a fire in the Triangle shirtwaist factory on the building’s top three floors resulted in the death of 146 workers, most of them young women.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the garment industry was the largest employer in New York City, with the shirtwaist, a high-necked blouse, one of its most popular products. Working conditions at the Triangle Waist Company were typical of many garment industry shops during this period, with immigrant workers laboring in overcrowded, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions. Shirtwaist workers at a number of shops began to join the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to combat these conditions.

In the autumn of 1909, Triangle fired 150 union sympathizers. This led to a strike by approximately 20,000 shirtwaist workers, 4/5 of them women, in New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore-- the first large-scale strike of women workers in the country. After thirteen weeks the strike ended. While many employers signed favorable contracts with the ILGWU, Triangle workers received only small wage increases and did not receive union recognition and better safety conditions.

A year later, fire erupted on the eighth floor of the Triangle factory and spread to the floors above; locked doors and inadequate fire escapes contributed to the deaths of 146 workers. The tragedy stunned the nation and became a catalyst for a broad range of reforms. In the next few years, New York City and New York State adopted a battery of new laws to protect the public from fires and ensure the health and safety of workers. The new laws were the most advanced and comprehensive in the country and served as models for other state and local ordinances and for the federal labor legislation of the New Deal era, twenty years later.

After the fire, the building was repaired and returned to industrial use. In 1916, New York University leased the eighth floor and eventually occupied the entire building. The building was donated to the university in 1929 by Frederick Brown and has been used continuously as an academic building. Starting with the 50th anniversary of the fire and each year since, the New York City Fire Department and the ILGWU (now UNITE), have marked the anniversary of the Triangle fire with a memorial ceremony in front of the building.