A memorial honoring the 146 people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 became a reality on Wednesday, more than 100 years after the plight of garment workers trapped inside a burning building became a pivotal moment for the American labor movement.
The names of those who died in the blaze have been etched into the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, where flames consumed the upper floors of the building where the factory once stood.
Workers at the factory — many of them women, children and recent immigrants — were trapped behind locked doors as the blaze spread. Some elected to jump from the building instead.
One of the names etched onto the reflective ceiling is Louis Rosen, a recent immigrant from Russia who worked at the factory. Rosen changed his name upon coming to the U.S., but died in the fire shortly after.
His great-grandson Bill Swersey, who was there with his 21-year-old son Mischa, has made a tradition of honoring Rosen’s legacy.
“He had only that new name for three-and-a-half months. I mean, think about that,” Swersey said. “Came here — he was 33 years old when he died. He took on this new identity in this new land, took a job, had all those hopes and dreams like any immigrant would have. And then it was snuffed out.”
Several union leaders and government officials appeared at the event, including Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The outrage following the 1911 fire spurred a series of reforms around worker safety and conditions that began on the state level and eventually crept onto the national stage, including the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration decades later.
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