By: Kirkley Greenwell

Times Square and West 42nd Street have gotten recent face-lifts, but there is one neighboring area that still enjoys being rough around the edges: Hell's Kitchen. Loosely defined as the district west of 8th Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets, Hell's Kitchen has a history as colorful as its name. Though the neighborhood now has a reputation for restaurants rather than riots, many of the locals can recall the darker past of Hell's Kitchen history.
For many years, Hell's Kitchen was famous for its fights. From ax-handle arguments over clotheslines to race riots, violence was a way of life.The area's name itself speaks volumes. No one can pin down the exact origin of the label, but some refer to a tenement on 54th as the first "Hell's Kitchen." Another explanation points to an infamous building at 39th as the true original. A gang and a local dive took the name as well. The truth is difficult to uncover, since the West Side was peppered with menacing nicknames like Battle Row and the House of Blazes (where arson was a favorite form of entertainment), so Hell's Kitchen was just another way of describing a place that was hotter than hell. The expression was possibly an import: a similar slum also existed in London and was known as Hell's Kitchen. Whatever the origin of the name, it fit. Hell's Kitchen was troubled by violence and general disorder from an early point in its history. In 1851 the Hudson River Railroad opened a station at West 30th Street, and the development of the railway brought factories, lumberyards, slaughterhouses and tenements to house the numerous immigrant workers. Poverty and close quarters bred ill will between neighbors, and riots erupted between the Irish Catholics and Protestants as well as between the Irish and African-Americans. Eventually, gangs such as the Gophers and later the Westies ruled the streets. Hell’s Kitchen also served as an appropriate setting for one of the most famous gang rivalries of all: the Sharks and the Jets in Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.Even the rowdiest of neighborhoods can be reformed, however. The 1930s brought the destruction of some of the worst tenements, and the surface railroad tracks that had given 11th its reputation as Death Avenue were moved to a safer location. The Ninth Avenue Elevated train, which had blocked out the sunshine for generations, was dismantled as well. Attracted by its easy access to the Theater District, actors moved into Hell's Kitchen. Off-Broadway theaters flourished, and the Actors Studio on West 44th Street fostered stars like Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. Residents took control of their blocks, transforming vacant lots into parks and driving out hoodlums. By the end of the 1950s developers wanted a more respectable identity for the neighborhood. The city planning committee finally rejected the infamous Hell's Kitchen designation in favor of a name resurrected from the past: Clinton, after former mayor and governor DeWitt Clinton Present-Day Hell's Kitchen.
These days Hell's Kitchen is free from gang wars, but it faces a new foe: gentrification. Neighboring districts like Chelsea and the Upper West Side have become magnets for wealthy young professionals in recent years. Hell's Kitchen lies in between, desperately fighting to hold onto its original working-class character.Over the years the Irish and German population has made room for Italians, Greeks, Eastern Europeans, Puerto Ricans, Peruvians and Ecuadorians, among others. This diversity is reflected in the local businesses, particularly in the numerous restaurants. A century ago vendors sold an array of foods from pushcarts along the streets; today the abundance and variety of food offered is a continuing tradition. Known for its ethnic cuisine, the area attracts hungry theater-goers, particularly along "Restaurant Row" on West 46th Street. Ninth Avenue, the heart of the neighborhood, is known for its annual International Food Festival in May, when twenty blocks are traffic free and filled instead with stands selling delicious fare from all over the world.With its lively ethnic character and old neighborhood feel, Hell's Kitchen is getting hotter all the time. Trendy New Yorkers hail Clinton as an up-and-coming neighborhood, safer and more attractive than ever. Even with this new popularity, however, many locals take pride in the rough-and-tumble past, remaining loyal to a neighborhood that they still call Hell's Kitchen.