In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire made history as the deadliest industrial disaster in the city’s history, killing 146 workers and setting safety standards still followed by the Big Apple. One hundred and twelve years later, the Triangle Fire Coalition on Oct. 11 unveiled the long-awaited permanent memorial at the site of one of New York City’s most calamitous blazes.
The memorial, over ten years in the making, is installed on the facade of the Brown Building at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in Greenwich Village. The Brown Building housed the factory, where on March 24, 1911, a cigarette tossed carelessly into a fabric scrap bin sealed the horrific fate of the sweatshop’s workers — most of them young immigrant women.
