Editing Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan (section)

===Early history and development===
{{Redirect|Great Kill|the neighborhood in Staten Island|Great Kills, Staten Island}}
[[File:West-side-ship.jpg|thumb|[[Manhattan Cruise Terminal]] in Hell's Kitchen at 52nd Street]]

On the island of Manhattan when Europeans first saw it, the Great [[Kill (body of water)|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,<ref>[[Gerard T. Koeppel]], ''Water for Gotham: A History'', 2001:10. {{ISBN|0-691-01139-7}}</ref> emptying into the [[Hudson River]] at a deep bay on the river at the present [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street]].<ref>Eric W. Sanderson, ''Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City'', 2009: Appendix A, p. 253 {{ISBN|978-0-8109-9633-5}}; refs. G.E. Hill and G.E. Waring Jr, "Old wells and water-courses on the isle of Manhattan", in ''Historic New York'', M.W. Goodwin, A.C. Royce, and R. Putnam, 1897; and others.</ref> 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, the predecessor of [[Longacre Square]], now [[Times Square]].<ref>Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, ''Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898'', 1999:721. {{ISBN|0-19-511634-8}}</ref>

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 (Manhattan)|53rd Street]] and Eleventh Avenue. Christened "Rosevale" for its extensive gardens, it was the home of the War of 1812 veteran, Gen. Garrit Hopper Striker, and lasted until 1896, when it was demolished.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Hospital Home on Old Hopper Farm; Elegant Country Mansion for Over a Century on Block Bought by the New York Hospital. |work=The New York Times |date=March 12, 1911 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/03/12/archives/new-hospital-home-on-old-hopper-farm-elegant-country-mansion-for.html |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408195145/https://www.nytimes.com/1911/03/12/archives/new-hospital-home-on-old-hopper-farm-elegant-country-mansion-for.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The site was purchased for the city and naturalistically landscaped by Samuel Parsons Jr. as [[DeWitt Clinton Park]]. In 1911, [[Weill Cornell Medical Center|New York Hospital]] bought a full city block largely of the Hopper property, between 54th and 55th Streets, Eleventh and [[Twelfth Avenue (Manhattan)|Twelfth Avenues]].<ref>{{cite news |title=New Hospital Home on Old Hopper Farm; Elegant Country Mansion for Over a Century on Block Bought by the New York Hospital. |work=The New York Times |date=March 12, 1911 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/03/12/archives/new-hospital-home-on-old-hopper-farm-elegant-country-mansion-for.html |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408195145/https://www.nytimes.com/1911/03/12/archives/new-hospital-home-on-old-hopper-farm-elegant-country-mansion-for.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Beyond the railroad track, projecting into 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.<ref name="NYT1902">{{cite news |title=New York's New Up-town Centre; Long Acre Square of To-day and Yesterday – Scenes Witnessed in the Neighborhood "During Revolutionary Times – Property Owners Whose Gardens and Farms Once Made the District Attractive – Washington's Connection with the Place – A Famous Road House and the Civil War. |work=The New York Times |date=September 21, 1902 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E1D91E3BE733A25752C2A96F9C946397D6CF |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408195144/https://www.nytimes.com/1902/09/21/archives/new-yorks-new-uptown-centre-long-acre-square-of-today-and-yesterday.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Harbor View Terrace NYCHA jeh.jpg|thumb|Harborview Terrace public housing buildings between West 54th and West 56th Streets, and Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, part of the [[New York City Housing Authority]]<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/developments/manharborview.shtml "Profile: Harborview Terrace"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307031614/http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/developments/manharborview.shtml |date=March 7, 2014 }}, NYCHA website</ref>]]

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 (vice president)|George Clinton]], now in a narrow court behind 422 West 46th Street.<ref>Kevin Walsh, [https://archive.org/details/forgottennewyork00wals ''Forgotten New York: The Ultimate Urban Explorer's Guide to All Five Boroughs''] (2006), p. 176.</ref> 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,<ref>[http://www.oldstreets.com/index.asp?letter=B Gilbert Tauber, "Old Streets of New York": "B" Streets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714234946/http://www.oldstreets.com/index.asp?letter=B |date=July 14, 2011 }}.</ref> and the name shifted to the junction of Broadway, [[West End Avenue]], and 106th Street, now [[Straus Park]].<ref>Ken Bloom, ''Broadway: Its History, People, and Places: An Encyclopedia'', "Introduction", 2004, p. xiii.</ref>

In 1825, the City purchased for $10 clear title to a right-of-way through John Leake Norton's{{efn|Norton, the great-nephew of John Leake, founder of [[Leake and Watts Children's Home]], is listed among early 19th-century owners of considerable tracts in what is now Hell's Kitchen, with [[John Jacob Astor]], William Cutting, Thomas Addis Emmet, Andrew Hopper, John Horn and William Wright.<ref name=NYT1902 />}} farm, "The Hermitage", to lay out [[42nd Street (Manhattan)|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.<ref>Ken Bloom, ''Broadway: Its History, People, and Places: An Encyclopedia'', "Introduction", 2004, p. xiii.</ref> Seventy acres of the Leakes', later the Nortons' property, extending north from 42nd to 46th Street and from Broadway to 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.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Cow Tunnels – 99% Invisible |work=99% Invisible |url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/cow-tunnels/ |access-date=2021-07-08 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408195146/https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/cow-tunnels/ |url-status=live }}</ref>