| THE ASTOR LEGACY: In 1803 John Jacob Astor bought Eden Farm, located in the then rural west side of Manhattan, for $25,000. The farm encompassed what would become 44th to 47th Streets, Seventh to Tenth Avenues. In the 1860s, William Backhouse Astor developed the area with tracts of housing. In contrast to tenements, which form the bulk of Hell's Kitchen housing stock, the Astor dwellings were brownstones. |  |
| The brownstone was the ubiquitous type of New York City private residence for the upper middle class. Many of the original, characteristic high stoops have been removed or altered. But West 47th Street residents continue to enjoy a time-honored New York City custom: stoop sitting. |
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LITERARY LIFE: In 1923 Harpo Marx attended a housewarming in Hell's Kitchen. Other guests included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Gershwin. The site of the party was 412-414 West 47th Street. These adjoining townhouses were owned by Harold Ross, the legendary editor of The New Yorker Magazine, and two colleagues. Dubbed Wit's End by Dorothy Parker, the buildings contained a number of apartments inhabited by Ross and his wife Jane Grant, Alexander Woollcott, and several other friends. The magazine's offices on West 43rd Street were a short walk away. The New Yorker crowd lived in Hell's Kitchen until 1927. |
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