About 10 years ago I saw an exhibit in the NY Library on 42nd and 5th Ave. It was entitled, "The History of Garbage in New York." One thing that I still remember was a map showing the Hell's Kitchen area (mostly the 40's from 8th Ave to the Hudson River), as being all slaughterhouses and tanneries. The time period was the late 1800's. The signifigance of this was the putrid smell from this area and the animal waste that was produced. I figured that contributed to the name Hell's Kitchen. Imagine living near there? When we were kids, going past the Secaucus pig farms was bad. Living by slaughterhouses and tanneries had to be unbearable.