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Dutch Reform Church, 1867
It's hard to imagine that Hell's Kitchen, the edgy and vibrant West Side neighborhood in the heart of New York City, was first settled for its fertile farmland and pastoral landscape. A lot has changed over the last four centuries, and Hell's Kitchen's rich historical legacy gives us insight into how this neighborhood has maintained its identity as a thriving melting pot in the middle of a world-class city.
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan extends between 34th and 59th Streets and from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. The neighborhood was first inhabited in the 17th century when the Dutch arrived in New York, drawn to the West Side's freshwater streams and grassy meadows. They named the area Bloemendael, meaning "Vale of Flowers." In decades to come, Irish and German immigrants would eventually settle in Hell's Kitchen to work at the Hudson River Railroad, which was set up in 1851. Industry in New York was bustling mid-century, and European immigrants took jobs in neighborhood breweries, factories, slaughterhouses, warehouses, brickyards and on the docks.
 top: Striker's Lane tenements, 1880s bottom: Sheep on their way to slaughter, 1931 |
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By the 1880s, 36th to 59th Streets west of 9th Avenue were a mixture of tenements and factories. With the construction of the elevated subway, or the El, in 1879, the glamorous parts of New York were finally connected to the West Side.
Many theories have been espoused as to the origins of the name Hell's Kitchen. Also a rough section on the South side of London, the moniker first appeared in print in the New York Times in 1881, when a reporter described a tenement at 39th Street and 10th Avenue as "Hell's Kitchen," calling the entire section "probably the lowest and filthiest in the city." Another version suggests that the name originates from a German restaurant in the area, Heil's Kitchen. But the most common story traces it to the legend of Dutch Fred The Cop, a veteran policeman, who witnessed a small riot with his rookie partner in the neighborhood. When the rookie said, "This place is Hell itself," Fred replied, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's kitchen."
Today, Hell's Kitchen, also called Clinton, fights to retain its scale, ethnic and income mix, support of small businesses and light industry. Although many of the early immigrants were from Europe, the neighborhood has also seen an influx of immigrants from Puerto Rico and other Carribbean islands, and later people from Asian countries. With its close proximity to the theater district and to midtown, Hell's Kitchen has also become a home for many actors, musicians and other artists.
Source: George Spiegler, Clinton Chronicle
