There’s a neighborhood in New York City known as Hell’s Kitchen, which covers the area west of Eighth Avenue stretching from about 34th to 59th Streets. Today it’s a high-rent neighborhood, quite sought after. It’s also smack dab in the theater district of Manhattan. It’s brimming with tourists and swanky restaurants. But 150 years ago it was quite a different place.
There are competing stories about how the neighborhood got its name. According to my favorite one (which is tough to substantiate), a veteran cop was watching a disturbance on 39th and 10th Avenue, in the mid-1800s, with his rookie partner. The rookie is supposed to have said, “This place is Hell itself,” to which the veteran cop replied, “Hell’s a mild climate. This is Hell’s Kitchen.”
What is certain is that the area became a hellish place in the mid nineteenth century, when what had been a rural riverfront was transformed into really smelly industries. The Hudson River Railroad was built in 1849, running right through the neighborhood. That was also the year that the Irish Potato Famine began, and huge numbers of Irish immigrants, many of them destitute, settled there in shanty towns along the river.
Industries included tanneries (about which I’ve blogged before), gasworks, slaughterhouses, and wharves, which added to the foul odors contributed by the colossal manure heaps.
Like all working class neighborhoods in 19th century New York, workers had to walk to work, so they lived near their jobs. It’s hard to fathom how bad the neighborhood must have smelled.
Yeah, it’s a different place today.
