65 Morton—Spies in our Building

By Kirk Arrowood

Joel Barr, Vivian Glassman, and Louise and Alfred Sarant in front of 65 Morton Street, probably 1945. Source: Exhibits from the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Case File, 03/13/1951-03/27/1951, Record Group 118, National Archives and Records Administration, New York City.

In the summer of 2011 a stranger with a large suitcase wanted to enter 65 Morton. I thought she was another Airbnb client and was skeptical. She explained she was here to see the apartment of her grandfather Alfred Sarant, former resident of 65 Morton #6I. He lived here from approximately 1945 to 1950. Fearing conviction as a spy for Russia, he left America unannounced. His wife and family never saw him again. She was here to see the apartment that he lived in, to create a memory of him. She insisted I read the book Engineering Communism. Turns out not only was her story accurate but that Alfred was a close friend of convicted and executed spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

NYC once held the most advanced military research laboratories in the world. Not far from Morton Street were the Westinghouse labs, home to where radar and advanced fuses for the atomic bomb were developed. Many of our apartments still have the old parquet flooring. Under the floors of 6I microfiche photos of drawings for advanced technologies like radar and the atomic bomb were stolen, hidden and shared with the Russians.

For over 30 years, Alfred’s family thought he was dead. However, when he lands in Russia, the story just begins. Engineering Communism is a great exposé on why so many Americans at one point believed in Communism. It’s also a tale of how perception is not always met with reality. The Russia that was thought of as a model society was anything but. In the early 90s families do get re-connected and stories continue to unfold. The book also shows us that the rooftop of Morton was once accessible to sunbathe!