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79-678: Mary Ellen was born in March 1864 to Frances Connor Wilson and Thomas Wilson of Hell's Kitchen in New York City. Frances Connor immigrated from England to New York City in 1858 and met Irishman Thomas Wilson. The couple married in April 1862, soon after Thomas was drafted into the 69th New York, a regiment of the Irish Brigade . Following Thomas's death during the American Civil War , Frances had to take

158-456: A 32-story office tower would be built. Hotels, apartment buildings, and a Madison Square Garden would be built over the tracks west of Pennsylvania Station . North of the Javits Center, a "Television City" would be developed by Larry Silverstein in conjunction with NBC . One impediment to development was the lack of mass transit in the area, which is far from Penn Station, and none of

237-520: A German restaurant in the area known as Heil's Kitchen, after its proprietors. But the most common version traces it to the story of "Dutch Fred the Cop", a veteran policeman, who with his rookie partner, was watching a small riot on West 39th Street near Tenth Avenue. The rookie is supposed to have said, "This place is hell itself", to which Fred replied, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's Kitchen." The 1929 book Manna-Hatin: The Story of New York states that

316-453: A bond issue that would have funded a 48th Street "people mover", the City first abandoned the rest of the 1969–70 master plan and then gave the neighborhood a special zoning district to restrict further redevelopment. Since then, limited new development has filled in the many empty lots and rejuvenated existing buildings. Later, in 1978, when the city could not afford the higher cost of constructing

395-534: A home to fledgling and working actors; it is the home of the Actors Studio training school and sits near Broadway theatres . Hell's Kitchen is part of Manhattan Community District 4 . It is patrolled by the 10th and Midtown North Precincts of the New York City Police Department . The area provides transport, medical, and warehouse-infrastructure support to the business district of Manhattan. It

474-520: A job, and was no longer able to stay at home to raise her infant daughter. She boarded her daughter, a common practice at the time, with a woman named Martha Score. When Frances Wilson's financial situation worsened, she began to miss her visitation dates with her daughter and was no longer able to make child care payments to Score. Score turned Mary Ellen, now almost two, into the New York City Department of Charities. Thomas and Mary McCormack,

553-585: A local advocate for the animal humane movement and the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , Henry Bergh . With the help of neighbors' testimony, Wheeler and Bergh removed Mary Ellen from the Connolly home using a writ of homine replegiando and took Mary Connolly to trial. Elbridge Thomas Gerry of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals took her case to

632-525: A married couple, had lost three children to slum-bred diseases. McCormack boasted he had fathered children by another woman, and on January 2, 1866, the McCormacks went to the Department of Charities, and claimed Mary Ellen Wilson was Thomas McCormack's daughter. The Department of Charities placed Mary Ellen into the McCormacks' care. Thomas McCormack signed an "indenture" agreement upon retrieving Mary Ellen from

711-418: A multiple murder there. He referred to a particularly infamous tenement at 39th Street and Tenth Avenue as "Hell's Kitchen" and said that the entire section was "probably the lowest and filthiest in the city." According to this version, 39th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues became known as Hell's Kitchen and the name was later expanded to the surrounding streets. Another version ascribes the name's origins to

790-422: A narrow court behind 422 West 46th Street. From 1811 until it was officially de-mapped in 1857, the diminutive Bloomingdale Square was part of the city's intended future. It extended from 53rd to 57th Streets between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. It was eliminated after the establishment of Central Park, and the name shifted to the junction of Broadway, West End Avenue , and 106th Street, now Straus Park . In 1825,

869-536: A real-estate building boom on Eighth Avenue, including the Hearst Tower at 56th Street and Eighth Avenue. An indication of how fast real estate prices rose in the neighborhood was a 2004 transaction involving the Howard Johnson's Motel at 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue. In June, Vikram Chatwal's Hampshire Hotel Group bought the motel and adjoining Studio Instrument Rental building for $ 9 million. In August, they sold

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948-527: A result, most of the buildings are older, and are often walk-up apartments . For the most part, the neighborhood encompasses the ZIP Codes 10019 and 10036. The post office for 10019 is called Radio City Station, the original name for Rockefeller Center on Sixth Avenue . The neighborhood overlaps Times Square and the Theater District to the east at Eighth Avenue. On its southeast border, it overlaps

1027-455: A time when I did not live with the Connollys. Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip—a rawhide . The whip always left a black and blue mark on my body. I have now the black and blue marks on my head which were made by Mamma and also a cut on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors. She struck me with

1106-580: Is Chelsea . The Hudson Yards neighborhood overlaps with Hell's Kitchen, and the areas are often lumped together as "West Midtown", given their proximity to the Midtown Manhattan business district. The traditional dividing line with Chelsea is 34th Street. The area between the rail corridor at Pennsylvania Station and the West Side Yard and 42nd Street, and east of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center ,

1185-631: Is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City , United States. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Hell's Kitchen has long been a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans , and its gritty reputation has long held real-estate prices below those of most other areas of Manhattan. But by 1969,

1264-588: Is also known as Hell's Kitchen South. The western border of the neighborhood is the Hudson River at the Hudson River Park and West Side Highway . Several explanations exist for the origin of the neighborhood's current name. An early use of the phrase appears in a comment Davy Crockett made about another notorious Irish slum in Manhattan, Five Points . According to the Irish Cultural Society of

1343-460: Is commonly seen as having played a key role in the development of children's rights and child protective services in the English-speaking world . Today it offers support and advocacy for high-risk and abused children, parental skills classes, and professional training in the identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect . In 1866 Henry Bergh had founded the American Society for

1422-406: Is immediately west of New York's main business district, large-scale redevelopment has been kept in check for more than 40 years by strict zoning rules in a Special Clinton District designed to protect the neighborhood's residents and its low-rise character. In part to qualify for federal aid, New York developed a comprehensive Plan for New York City in 1969–70. While for almost all neighborhoods,

1501-411: Is known for its extensive selection of multiethnic, small, and relatively inexpensive restaurants, delicatessens, bodegas , bars, and associated nightlife. The name "Hell's Kitchen" generally refers to the area between 34th to the south and 59th Street to the north. Starting west of Eighth Avenue and the north side of 43rd Street, city zoning regulations generally limit buildings to six stories. As

1580-515: Is rooted in laws advocated by the NYSPCC". This includes: The founding of the NYSPCC prompted the rapid formation of other societies around the United States. By 1880 there were 37 societies; 162 in 1901, and by 1910 there were 250 societies in operation. One impact of the NYSPCC's activities was an increase in the number of men in the legal system being prosecuted for sexual crimes against children;

1659-701: The Garment District also on Eighth Avenue. Two landmarks are located here – the New Yorker Hotel at 481 Eighth Avenue, and the Manhattan Center building at the northwest corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. Included in the transition area on Eighth Avenue are the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street , the Pride of Midtown fire station (from which an entire shift, 15 firefighters, died at

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1738-463: The Hudson River Railroad , whose initial leg – the 40 mi (64 km) to Peekskill  – was completed on September 29, 1849, By the end of 1849, it stretched to Poughkeepsie and in 1851 it extended to Albany . The track ran at a steep grade up Eleventh Avenue, as far as 60th Street . The formerly rural riverfront was industrialized by businesses, such as tanneries, that used

1817-459: The Massachusetts and Brooklyn SPCCs criticised an approach which made "no attempt to discover the cause of the conditions which make action by the society necessary, and therefore no endeavor to prevent a recurrence of these conditions". In the late 1870s Gerry persuaded the police department to allow Society agents (nicknamed "Gerrymen") to keep children away from "immoral" activities such as

1896-474: The New York State Supreme Court in 1874. At the time of the trial, Mary Ellen was ten years of age. The deliberate cruelties and deprivations inflicted on Mary Ellen Wilson by her adopted parents included the following: On April 9, 1874, the child testified in court regarding the abuse she had suffered: My father and mother are both dead. I don’t know how old I am. I have no recollection of

1975-618: The Panic of 1857 led to the formation of gangs "in the notorious ' Gas House District ' at Twenty-First Street and the East River, or in 'Hell's Kitchen', in the West Thirties." Hell's Kitchen has become the most frequently used name of the neighborhood, even though real estate developers have offered alternatives such as "Clinton" and "Midtown West", or even "the Mid-West". The "Clinton" name, used by

2054-453: The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks , the station with the greatest loss of firefighters was Engine Co. 54/Ladder Co. 4/Battalion 9 at 48th Street and Eighth Avenue, which lost 15 firefighters, an entire shift on duty. Given its proximity to Midtown, the station specializes in skyscraper fires and rescues. In 2007, it was the second-busiest firehouse in New York City, with 9,685 runs between

2133-573: The World Trade Center ), several theatres including Studio 54 , the original soup stand of Seinfeld ' s " The Soup Nazi ", and the Hearst Tower . The northern edge of Hell's Kitchen borders the southern edge of the Upper West Side , though the section west of Ninth Avenue and south of 57th Street is also part of the Columbus Circle neighborhood. 57th Street was traditionally

2212-460: The theater , amusement parks , penny arcades and poor and immigrant neighborhoods. Gerry was keen to enforce child labor laws regarding performance. Moving beyond street theater and acrobatics, he turned to juvenile theater, which caused controversy with those involved in the theater. Anti-Gerry campaign groups formed, and the mayor of New York was persuaded to limit Gerry's power and set out proper regulation of child stage performers. In 1921,

2291-551: The 44th Street convention center over water, the Mayor and Governor chose the rail yard site originally proposed by the local community. The SCD was originally split into four areas: Special permits are required for all demolition and construction in the SCD, including demolition of "any sound housing in the District" and any rehabilitation that increases the number of dwellings in a structure. In

2370-545: The ASPCA board were recruited to the board of the NYSPCC, with Wright subsequently attracting other wealthy benefactors including Cornelius Vanderbilt . After Wright's death in 1879, Gerry became president, retiring in 1901, but remaining legal advisor until his death in 1927. Bergh went on to found the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1878, with other similar organisations appearing across

2449-542: The City Planning Commission's Plan for New York City reported that development pressures related to its Midtown location were driving people of modest means from the area. Gentrification has accelerated since the early 1980s, and rents have risen rapidly. In addition to its long-established Irish-American and Hispanic-American populations, Hell's Kitchen has a large LGBTQ population and is home to many LGBTQ bars and businesses. The neighborhood has long been

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2528-550: The City purchased for $ 10 clear title to a right-of-way through John Leake Norton's farm, "The Hermitage", to lay out 42nd Street clear to the river. Before long, cattle ferried from Weehawken were being driven along the unpaved route to slaughterhouses on the East Side. Seventy acres of the Leakes', later the Nortons' property, extending north from 42nd to 46th Street and from Broadway to

2607-476: The Clinton Planning Council and Daniel Gutman, their environmental planner, proposed that the convention center and all major development be located south of 42nd Street, where public policy had already left tracts of vacant land. Nevertheless, in 1973 the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was approved for a 44th Street site that would replace piers 84 and 86. But in exchange, and after the defeat of

2686-493: The Connollys' apartment to witness Mary Ellen's state for herself. When Ms. Wheeler saw evidence of severe physical abuse , malnourishment , and neglect in Mary Ellen's condition—she was seen barefoot in the winter, for example—Wheeler began to research legal options to redress the abuse and protect the young girl. After finding the local authorities reluctant to act upon the child cruelty laws currently in place, Wheeler turned to

2765-542: The Department of Charities' care. The McCormacks were required to report the child's condition annually to the department, but this only occurred once or twice during Mary Ellen's stay. Shortly after gaining custody of the girl Thomas McCormack died. His widow then married Francis Connolly. The Connollys and Mary Ellen moved to an apartment on West 41st Street. It was at this address that neighbors first became aware of young Mary Ellen's mistreatment. Her foster mother forced her to do heavy labor, repeatedly beat, burned, and cut

2844-581: The Garden City Area: When, in 1835, Davy Crockett said, "In my part of the country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a first-rate gentleman; but these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hell's kitchen", he was referring to the Five Points. According to an article by Kirkley Greenwell, published online by the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association: No one can pin down the exact origin of

2923-495: The Great Kill formed from three small streams that united near present-day Tenth Avenue and 40th Street, and then wound through the low-lying Reed Valley, renowned for fish and waterfowl, emptying into the Hudson River at a deep bay on the river at the present 42nd Street . The name was retained in a tiny hamlet called Great Kill, which became a center for carriage-making. The upland to the south and east became known as Longacre,

3002-574: The HKNA plan was to allow major new development while protecting the existing residential core area between Ninth and Tenth avenues. New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1874 (and incorporated in 1875). It is the world's first child protective agency. It is sometimes called the Gerry Society after one of its co-founders, Elbridge Thomas Gerry . It

3081-512: The Hudson Yards Master Plan, the area covered is bordered on the east by Seventh and Eighth Avenues, on the south by West 28th and 30th Streets, on the north by West 43rd Street, and on the west by Hudson River Park and the Hudson River . The City's plan was similar to a neighborhood plan produced by architect Meta Brunzema and environmental planner Daniel Gutman for the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association (HKNA). The main concept of

3160-485: The Preservation Area cannot exceed 66 ft (20 m) or seven stories, whichever is less. As the gentrification pace increased, there were numerous reports of problems between landlords and tenants. The most extreme example was the eight-story Windermere Apartments complex at the southwest corner of Ninth Avenue and 57th Street. Built in 1881, it is the second-oldest large apartment house in Manhattan. In 1980,

3239-579: The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , partly in response to the creation in Great Britain of the RSPCA some years earlier. In 1874 he and other officers of the society were approached by a church worker named Etta Angell Wheeler regarding the mistreatment of a child called Mary Ellen McCormack , who was being beaten daily by her foster mother. Wheeler had approached several others before appealing to an animal charity. Bergh swiftly managed to secure custody of

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3318-454: The Society campaigned successfully for a reassessment of the sexuality of children and their difference to adult women. It has been argued, however, that these initial years were not a campaign for children's rights , but partly motivated by a desire to control the working classes and instill conservative values. Bergh himself spoke in favor of flogging children as a form of discipline at

3397-871: The Society leased the former House of Mercy at the upper end of Manhattan island, which Harriet Starr Cannon had organized beginning in 1863, and to which courts had previously sentenced abandoned and wayward girls and women, while it built its own facility nearby (on Fifth Avenue between 105th and 106th streets) to house children previously either detained in stationhouses awaiting judicial action or jailed with adult prisoners. The NYSPCC runs several programs, including parenting skills, trauma recovery for abused children, trauma recovery for child welfare officers dealing with harrowing cases, professional training in identifying and reporting abuse and neglect, and visitation programs allowing children to visit their non-custodial parents in safe environments. While acting pursuant to their duties, individuals performing investigatory tasks for

3476-578: The United States. Following its inception, the Society quickly became an integral part of the New York legal system, acting as representatives of the State and City in child abuse court cases, and with a hotline from the Society to the police. According to one analysis, the Society effectively brought state law "into line with its [own] understanding of childhood". The organisation itself claims that "the entire body of modern [United States] child protective legislation

3555-505: The area was still zoned as a manufacturing district with low-rise apartment buildings. By the early 1990s, there was a recession , which scuttled plans for rezoning and severely reduced the amount of development in the area. After the recession was over, developers invested in areas like Times Square , eastern Hell's Kitchen, and Chelsea , but mostly skipped the Far West Side. While most fire stations in Manhattan lost firefighters in

3634-524: The boundary between the Upper West Side and Hell's Kitchen, but another interpretation puts the northern border at 59th Street, where the names of the north–south avenues change. Included between 57th and 59th Streets the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle; Hudson Hotel ; Mount Sinai West , where John Lennon died in 1980 after being shot; and John Jay College . Beyond the southern boundary

3713-408: The child and locked her in a closet. When the Connollys moved to a new address, one of the concerned neighbors from their 41st Street apartment asked Etta Angell Wheeler , a Methodist missionary who worked in the area, to check in on the child. Under the pretext of asking Mrs. Connolly's help in caring for Connolly's new neighbor, the chronically ill and home-bound Mary Smitt, Wheeler gained access to

3792-483: The child. After the trial and conviction in April 1874 of the foster mother for assault and battery , Etta Wheeler is said to have approached Bergh and asked him why there should not be a society to protect children just as there was one to prevent cruelty to animals. He promised to create one. Bergh and his ASPCA legal counsel Elbridge Thomas Gerry approached the Quaker philanthropist John D. Wright to gain support for

3871-432: The creation of a child protection society. On December 15, 1874, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed. According to Gerry, the Society's purpose was: ... To rescue little children from the cruelty and demoralization which neglect, abandonment and improper treatment engender; to aid by all lawful means in the enforcement of the laws intended for their protection and benefit; to secure by like means

3950-575: The decline of the West Side piers and many longshoremen found themselves out of work. In addition, construction of the Lincoln Tunnel in the 1930s, Lincoln Tunnel access roads, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal and ramps starting in 1950 destroyed much of Hell's Kitchen south of 41st Street. In 1959, an aborted rumble between rival Irish and Puerto Rican gangs led to the notorious " Capeman " murders in which two innocent teenagers, mistaken for rival gang members, were killed. By 1965, Hell's Kitchen

4029-488: The extension of Midtown Manhattan 's skyscraper development into Hell's Kitchen, at least north of 42nd Street. In 1989, the David Childs - and Frank Williams -designed Worldwide Plaza established a beachhead when it was built at the former Madison Square Garden site, a full city block between 49th and 50th Streets and between Eighth and Ninth Avenues that was exempt from special district zoning rules. This project led

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4108-584: The first meeting of the NYSPCC. However it is certain that the NYSPCC helped to establish a more humanitarian definition of child cruelty. A notable feature of the NYSPCC's initial activities was Gerry's view that the proper role of the Society was as a law enforcement agency rather than a provider of social services, with its main focus on child rescue. This position arguably made the society seem less progressive in later years as other organizations moved away from legal enforcement towards family support and cruelty prevention rather than prosecution. In particular,

4187-411: The harassment, he and his wife made top billing in the 1985 edition of The Village Voice 's annual list, "The Dirty Dozen: New York's Worst Landlords." Most of the tenants eventually settled and moved out of the building. In May 2006, seven tenants remained and court orders protecting the tenants and the building allowed it to remain in a derelict condition even as the surrounding neighborhood

4266-461: The label, but some refer to a tenement on 54th Street as the first "Hell's Kitchen". Another explanation points to an infamous building at 39th as the true origin. A gang and a local dive took the name as well. Local historian Mary Clark explained the name thus: ...first appeared in print on September 22, 1881 when a New York Times reporter went to the West 30s with a police guide to get details of

4345-459: The massive residential displacement that this development project would have caused, and the failure of the City to complete any replacement housing, led to opposition to the first project – a new convention center to replace the New York Coliseum . To prevent the convention center from sparking a development boom that would beget the rest of the master plan with its consequent displacement,

4424-451: The master plan contained few proposals, it was very explicit about the bright future of Hell's Kitchen. The plan called for 2,000 to 3,000 new hotel rooms, 25,000 apartments, 25 × 10 ^  sq ft (2,300,000 m ) of office space, a new super liner terminal, a subway along 48th Street, and a convention center to replace what the plan described as "blocks of antiquated and deteriorating structures of every sort." However, outrage at

4503-419: The municipality of New York City, originated in 1959 in an attempt to change the image of the neighborhood by linking the area to DeWitt Clinton Park at 52nd and Eleventh Avenue , named after the 19th century New York governor , though The New York Times noted that those who live in the area "prefer Hell's Kitchen" as the name for the neighborhood. On the island of Manhattan when Europeans first saw it,

4582-449: The original provisions, no building could be demolished unless it was unsound. New developments, conversions, or alterations that create new units or zero bedroom units must contain at least 20% two bedroom apartments with a minimum room size of 168 sq ft (16 m ). Alterations that reduce the percentage of two-bedroom units are not permitted unless the resulting building meets the 20% two-bedroom requirement. Building height in

4661-453: The owner, Alan B. Weissman, tried to empty the building of its tenants. According to former tenants and court papers, rooms were ransacked, doors were ripped out, prostitutes were moved in, and tenants received death threats in the campaign to empty the building. All the major New York newspapers covered the trials that sent the Windermere's managers to jail. Although Weissman was never linked to

4740-504: The predecessor of Longacre Square , now Times Square . One of the large farms of the colonial era in this neighborhood was that of Andreas Hopper and his descendants, extending from today's 48th Street nearly to 59th Street and from the river east to what is now Sixth Avenue . One of the Hopper farmhouses, built in 1752 for John Hopper the younger, stood near 53rd Street and Eleventh Avenue. Christened "Rosevale" for its extensive gardens, it

4819-472: The prompt conviction and punishment of all persons violating such laws and especially such persons as cruelly ill treat and shamefully neglect such little children of whom they claim the care, custody or control. On April 27, 1875, it was incorporated as the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, with Wright as president and Bergh and Gerry as vice-presidents. Three other members of

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4898-523: The property to Elad Properties for about $ 43 million. Elad, which formerly owned the Plaza Hotel , built The Link, a luxury 44-story building, at that location. In 2003, the New York City Department of City Planning issued a master plan that envisioned the creation of 40,000,000 sq ft (3,700,000 m ) of commercial and residential development, two corridors of open space. Dubbed

4977-403: The proposals for a link to Penn Station was pursued successfully, for example, the ill-fated West Side Transitway. No changes to the zoning policy happened until 1990, when the city rezoned a small segment of 11th Avenue near the Javits Center. In 1993, part of 9th Avenue between 35th and 41st Streets was also rezoned. However, neither of these rezonings was particularly significant, as most of

5056-421: The river at 54th Street, was Mott's Point, with an 18th-century Mott family house surrounded by gardens, that was inhabited by members of the family until 1884 and survived until 1895. A lone surviving structure from the time this area was open farmland and suburban villas is a pre-1800s carriage house that once belonged to a villa owned by former Vice President and New York State governor George Clinton , now in

5135-454: The river for shipping products and dumping waste. The neighborhood that would later be known as Hell's Kitchen started forming in the southern part of the 22nd Ward in the mid-19th century. Irish immigrants – mostly refugees from the Great Famine  – found work on the docks and railroad along the Hudson River and established shantytowns there. After the American Civil War , there

5214-401: The river, were purchased before 1807 by John Jacob Astor and William Cutting , who held it before dividing it into building lots as the district became more suburban. The West Side later had its own slaughterhouses, which went out of business in the middle 20th century. There were multiple changes that helped Hell's Kitchen integrate with New York City proper. The first was construction of

5293-455: The scissors and cut me; I have no recollection of ever having been kissed by any one—have never been kissed by Mamma. I have never been taken on my mamma's lap and caressed or petted. I never dared to speak to anybody, because if I did, I would get whipped. I do not know for what I was whipped—Mamma never said anything to me when she whipped me. I do not want to go back to live with Mamma, because she beats me so. I have no recollection ever being on

5372-517: The street in my life. A jury convicted Mrs. Connolly of assault and battery and the judge sentenced her to one year in prison. That year, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded, the first organization of its kind. Following the conviction of Mary Connolly, Mary Ellen was initially placed in a juvenile home before Etta Wheeler and her relatives successfully obtained custody of her. Wheeler later wrote: The child

5451-402: The two companies. Its patch reads "Pride of Midtown" and "Never Missed a Performance". Memorials dot the station's exterior walls and a granite memorial is in a park to its north. Ladder 21, the "Pride of Hell's Kitchen", located on 38th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and stationed with Engine Co. 34, lost seven firefighters on September 11. In addition, on September 11, Engine Co. 26

5530-426: The woman who rescued Mary Ellen), and Florence. The couple also adopted an orphaned girl named Eunice. Her daughter Florence remembered Mary Ellen as being solemn, but someone who "came alive whenever she listened to Irish jigs and especially to " The Irish Washerwoman ." She lived to the age of 92, and died on October 30, 1956. Hell%27s Kitchen, Manhattan Hell's Kitchen , formerly also known as Clinton ,

5609-412: Was an influx of people who moved to New York City. The tenements that were built became overcrowded quickly. Many who lived in this congested, poverty-stricken area turned to gang life. Following Prohibition , implemented in 1919, the district's many warehouses were ideal locations for bootleg distilleries for the rumrunners who controlled illicit liquor. At the start of the 20th century, the neighborhood

5688-452: Was an interesting study, so long shut within four walls and now in a new world. Woods, fields, 'green things growing,' were all strange to her, she had not known them. She had to learn, as a baby does, to walk upon the ground – she had walked only upon floors, and her eye told her nothing of uneven surfaces. In 1888, when Mary Ellen was twenty-four, she married Lewis Schutt, a widower with three children. They had two daughters, Etta (named after

5767-412: Was constructed in Hell's Kitchen, the surrounding area was still largely tenements. After the repeal of Prohibition , many of the organized crime elements moved into other rackets, such as illegal gambling and union shakedowns. The postwar era was characterized by a flourishing waterfront, and longshoreman work was plentiful. By the end of the 1970s, the implementation of containerized shipping led to

5846-536: Was controlled by gangs, including the violent Gopher Gang led by One Lung Curran and later by Owney Madden . Early gangs, like the Hell's Kitchen Gang, transformed into organized crime entities, around the same time that Owney Madden became one of the most powerful mobsters in New York. It became known as the "most dangerous area on the American Continent". By the 1930s, when the McGraw-Hill Building

5925-554: Was experiencing a dramatic burst of demolition and redevelopment. In September 2007, the fire department evacuated the remaining seven residents from the building, citing dangerous conditions, and padlocked the front door. In 2008, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the owners of the building, who include the TOA Construction Corporation of Japan, must repair it. By the 1980s the area south of 42nd Street

6004-433: Was in decline. Both the state and the city hoped that the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center would renew the area. Hotels, restaurants, apartment buildings, and television studios were proposed. One proposal included apartments and hotels on a 30 acres (12 ha) pier jutting out onto Hudson River, which included a marina , ferry slip , stores, restaurants, and a performing arts center . At Ninth Avenue and 33rd Street,

6083-459: Was temporarily stationed with Engine Co. 34/Ladder Co. 21 and lost many firefighters themselves. Hell's Kitchen has become an increasingly upscale neighborhood of affluent young professionals as well as residents from the "old days", with rents in the neighborhood having increased dramatically above the average in Manhattan. It has also acquired a large and diverse community as residents have moved north from Chelsea . Zoning has long restricted

6162-607: Was the home base of the Westies , an Irish mob aligned with the Gambino crime family . In the early 1980s widespread gentrification began to alter the demographics of the longtime working-class Irish American neighborhood. The 1980s saw an end to the Westies' reign of terror, when the gang lost all of its power after the RICO convictions of most of its principals in 1986. Although the neighborhood

6241-473: Was the home of the War of 1812 veteran, Gen. Garrit Hopper Striker, and lasted until 1896, when it was demolished. The site was purchased for the city and naturalistically landscaped by Samuel Parsons Jr. as DeWitt Clinton Park . In 1911, New York Hospital bought a full city block largely of the Hopper property, between 54th and 55th Streets, Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues . Beyond the railroad track, projecting into

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