Hell's Kitchen Block Could Be Named For Beloved Theater Founder

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A stretch of 42nd Street could bear the name of a late performing arts luminary, depending on the success of a new campaign launched by the theater he founded.

The Signature Theatre is pushing to co-name West 42nd Street between 10th and Dyer avenues in honor of its founder, James Houghton, who led the Off-Broadway organization for 25 years until his death in 2016.

That block includes the Pershing Square Signature Center, the Signature's home since 2008. According to the Signature's staff, it was one of Houghton's two homes in Hell's Kitchen, along with Manhattan Plaza, where he lived for decades with his wife, Joyce O'Connor, and their two children.

Signature's staff, board and artists have launched a petition in support of the "Jim Houghton Way" campaign, which was first reported on by W42ST.

"We need to collect as much support from our local community as possible before we present to the Transportation Committee of Community Board 4 at their January meeting," the petition reads.

A Bay Area native, Houghton worked as a waiter and carpenter during his early days in New York City's theater scene. In 1991, he founded Signature Theatre in a Lower Manhattan black-box theater, with the novel idea of focusing each season on a single playwright's work.

It moved uptown to 555 West 42nd St. a few years later, then settled in its current, Frank Gehry-designed space in 2012. He died in 2016 from stomach cancer.

"He had a profound impact on the American theatre landscape and left quite a mark on NYC as an anchor of the west side’s cultural development," the petition reads.