Commemorating the 115th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

EVG file photo 

A commemoration marking the 115th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire will take place today at the site of the tragedy. 

The annual ceremony honors the 146 garment workers — mostly young immigrant women who lived on the Lower East Side — who died in the 1911 fire, an event that led to major reforms in labor and fire safety laws.

During the program, attendees — including family members, labor leaders and elected officials — will read the names of the victims as a bell tolls. Flowers will be placed at the site, and a fire truck ladder will be raised to the sixth floor, the highest point firefighters could reach at the time. The fire engulfed the 8th, 9th and 10th floors. 

The gathering begins at 11:30 a.m. with music, followed by the program at noon, on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park.

As in the past 20-plus years, volunteers today will participate in a chalking project (organized by Street Pictures), writing the names and ages of the victims where they lived. 

For more details on the fire and its lasting impact, visit the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website.

Paying tribute to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911

Tomorrow marks the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

As in past years, volunteers have been taking part in the chalking project (organized by Street Pictures), writing the names and ages of the victims in front of the buildings where they lived on the Lower East Side.

For example, Julia Oberstein lived at 53 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street. (Top photo.) She was 19 years old. 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in U.S. history ... causing the death of 146 garment workers (mostly young women) who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths.

The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place just east of Washington Square Park, where the commemoration ceremonies take place today (3/24). Find more details at The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website.

A memorial, expected to be unveiled at the site of the fire, is in the works. Read more about it here.

The shirtwaist dress on the Bowery

Photos courtesy of E. Jay Sims

On Sunday, Bowery resident E. Jay Sims hung a large shirtwaist dress on the top-floor fire escape at 306 Bowery.

She mounted the dress, from a performance art piece that she did at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984, here this week on the Bowery at First Street in honor of Women's History Month ... and in memory of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, whose 110th anniversary is tomorrow. 

The fire killed 146 garment workers — mostly young women, many of whom lived on the Lower East Side.

Sims, a longtime visual arts teacher, also dedicated this memorial to her grandmother, Rose Kruger, a Hungarian immigrant/seamstress who arrived in New York in 1913 and used her sewing skills to raise her family in America.

Weather permitting, the dress will be up through the weekend...