Is the inscription found at the apartment house at 3102-3116 Brighton 1st Place near Brighton Beach Avenue meant to be the same Mother Jones of the famed left-leaning magazine of the same name? Sure it is. As Paul Shaw explains in this (now-deleted) fascinating article about letterforms in Brooklyn:
Mary Harris Jones — better known as Mother Jones — was one of the founders of the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) and a labor organizer for the United Mine Workers and the Socialist Party of America. In 1902 she was labeled “the most dangerous woman in America” by a West Virginia District Attorney due to her efforts on behalf of striking coal miners. So, how did an apartment building in Brighton Beach come to bear her name? The building may have been a cooperative financed by unions for its members such as those the Amalgamated Clothing Workers built near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx between 1927 and 1970.
Because you can never get enough of Brighton Beach
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3 comments
I’m surprised they haven’t changed the name to “Birthing Person Jones.”
I looked up the former name of Brighton First Place to see if there was any “Jones” reference there; it was formerly called Ocean Place, so no connection via former street name as in some Queens buildings.
All of the “Brighton” numberd streets (and related places, courts, walks, paths, etc.) were originally called something else. The “Brighton streets” were generally just continuations of the “East” numbered streets, while the others held a myriad of names; trees, shore themes, etc.
The I.W.W. is still around but is not as powerful or militant as it used to be.