Hotel Chelsea

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For the 2009 film, see Hotel Chelsea (film).
Hotel Chelsea
close-up of the facade, showing the cast iron balconies
Hotel Chelsea is located in New York City
Location: 222 West 23rd Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Coordinates: 40°44′40″N 73°59′48″W / 40.74444°N 73.99667°W / 40.74444; -73.99667
Area: Less than one acre
Built: 1884
Architect: Hubert, Pirsson and Company
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 77000958[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: December 27, 1977
Designated NYCL: March 15, 1966

The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents. Located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, the 250-unit[2] hotel has been the home of numerous writers, musicians, artists, and actors, including Bob Dylan, Virgil Thomson, Charles Bukowski, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Viva, Gaby Hoffmann, Jobriath, and Larry Rivers. Though the Hotel Chelsea no longer accepts new long-term residencies, the building is still home to many residents who lived there before the change of policy. As of August 1, 2011, the hotel has closed for renovations.[3]

Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso chose it as a place for philosophical and artistical exchange. It is also known as the place where the writer Dylan Thomas was staying when he died of pneumonia on November 9, 1953, and where Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978. Arthur Miller has written a short piece, "The Chelsea Affect", describing life at The Chelsea in the early 1960s.[4]

The building has been a designated New York City landmark since 1966,[5] and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977.[1][6]

Contents

History [edit]

Built between 1883 and 1885 and opened for initial occupation in 1884,[5][7] the twelve-story red-brick building that is now the Hotel Chelsea was one of the city's first private apartment cooperatives.[2] It was designed by Phiip Hubert[8] of the firm of Hubert, Pirsson & Company in a style that has been described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic.[7] Among its distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M Cornell[5][7] and its grand staircase, which extends upward twelve floors. Generally, this staircase is only accessible to registered guests, although the hotel does offer monthly tours to others. At the time of its construction, the building was the tallest in New York.[citation needed]

Hubert and Pirsson had created a "Hubert Home Club" in 1880 for "The Rembrandt", a six-story building on West 57th Street intended as housing for artists. This early cooperative building had rental units to help defray costs, and also provided servants as part of the building staff.[8] The success of this model led to other "Hubert Home Clubs", and the Chelsea was one of them.[8] Initially successful, its surrounding neighborhood constituted the center of New York's theater district.[9] However within a few years the combination of economic stresses, the suspicions of New York's middle class about apartment living, the opening up of Upper Manhattan and the plentiful supply of houses there, and the relocation of the city's theater district bankrupted the Chelsea.[8][9]

In 1905, the building reopened as a hotel, which was later managed by Knott Hotels and resident manager A. R. Walty. After the hotel went bankrupt, it was purchased in 1939 by Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard,[2] and these partners managed the hotel together until the early 1970s. With the passing of Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss, the management fell to Stanley Bard, David Bard's son.

On June 18, 2007, the hotel's board of directors ousted Bard as the hotel's manager. Dr. Marlene Krauss, the daughter of Julius Krauss, and David Elder, the grandson of Joseph Gross and the son of playwright and screenwriter Lonne Elder III, replaced Stanley Bard with the management company BD Hotels NY; that firm has since been terminated as well.

In May 2011, the hotel was sold to real estate developer Joseph Chetrit for US$80 million dollars.[10] As of August 1, 2011 the hotel stopped taking reservations for guests in order to begin renovations,[11] but long-time residents remain in the building, some of them protected by state rent regulations.[12] The renovations prompted complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the construction. These were investigated by the city's Building Department,[13] which found no major violations.[14] In November 2011, the management ordered all of the hotel's many artworks taken off the walls, supposedly for their protection and cataloging, a move which some tenants interpreted as a step towards forcing them out as well.[12]

Notable residents [edit]

Art fills the staircase of the Hotel Chelsea

Literary artists [edit]

During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writers and thinkers including Mark Twain,[15] O. Henry,[15] Herbert Huncke,[16] Dylan Thomas,[15] Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Arnold Weinstein, Leonard Cohen, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Arthur Miller, Quentin Crisp, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams,[15] Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac (who wrote On the Road there),[16] Robert Hunter, Jack Gantos, Brendan Behan, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Thomas Wolfe, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Kennedy, Matthew Richardson, James T. Farrell, Valerie Solanas, Mary Cantwell, and René Ricard.

Charles R. Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend, committed suicide in his room on September 21, 1968.

Actors and film directors [edit]

The hotel has been a home to actors and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Jonas Mekas (was long-time resident from 1967 to 1974), Shirley Clarke, Mitch Hedberg, Dave Hill, Miloš Forman, Lillie Langtry, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Vincent Gallo, Patricia Chica, Maria Beatty, Eddie Izzard, Uma Thurman, Elliott Gould, Elaine Stritch, Michael Imperioli, Jane Fonda, Russell Brand, Gaby Hoffmann and her mother, the Warhol film star Viva, and Edie Sedgwick.

Musicians [edit]

Much of Hotel Chelsea's history has been colored by the musicians who have resided or visited there. Some of the most prominent names include Grateful Dead, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Bobby "Werner" Strete, Mod Fun, Virgil Thomson, Chick Corea, Alexander Frey, Jeff Beck, Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Phil Lynott, Henri Chopin, John Cale, Édith Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, Alejandro Escovedo, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Walker, Canned Heat, Sid Vicious, Vivian Stanshall, Richard Hell, Jobriath Boone, Little Annie, Rufus Wainwright, Lance Loud, Abdullah Ibrahim/Sathima Bea Benjamin/Jean Grae, Vasant Rai, Jacques Labouchere, and Leonard Cohen. Madonna lived at the Chelsea in the early eighties, returning in 1992 to shoot photographs for her book, Sex, in room 822.[17] Falco, Ryan Adams, The Libertines, The Fuse (UK), Michael McDermott, Melissa Auf der Maur, Tim Freedman, and Anthony Kiedis have spent time at The Chelsea[citation needed]. Taylor Momsen's band, the Pretty Reckless, did a photo shoot in room 822 of the Chelsea. British pop band La Roux shot the second version of the music video for their song "In for the Kill" at the Chelsea.

Visual artists [edit]

The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artists who have passed through. Larry Rivers, Brett Whiteley, Christo, Arman, Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, Ching Ho Cheng, David Remfry, Philip Taaffe, Ralph Gibson, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Robert Crumb, Ellen Cantor, Jasper Johns, Edie Sedgwick, Claes Oldenburg, Vali Myers, Donald Baechler, Herbert Gentry, Willem De Kooning, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lynne Drexler, Nora Sumberg and Henri Cartier-Bresson have all spent time at the hotel. Painter and ethnomusicologist Harry Everett Smith lived and died in Room 328. The painter Alphaeus Philemon Cole lived there for 35 years until his death in 1988 at age 112.[18]

Fashion designers [edit]

Charles James, credited with being America's first couturier who influenced fashion in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1964 he moved into the Chelsea, dying there of pneumonia in 1978.

The facade of the hotel in December 2010

Warhol superstars [edit]

Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars, as Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey directed Chelsea Girls (1966), a film about his Factory regulars and their lives at the hotel. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov, Holly Woodlawn, Andrea Feldman, Nico, Paul America, René Ricard and Brigid Berlin.

Others [edit]

New York event promoter Susanne Bartsch lived at the Chelsea Hotel. Several survivors of the Titanic stayed for some time in this hotel as it is a short distance from Pier 54, the White Star Line dock where the Titanic was supposed to dock. The Chelsea was also home to many sailors returning from their duties in World War I. Ruth Harkness, an adventurer/naturalist who brought the first live giant panda from China to the U.S. in the 1930s, stayed at the Chelsea Hotel after her return to the States.

In popular culture [edit]

Films and television [edit]

The hotel has been featured in:

The lobby of the hotel

Music [edit]

The hotel is also featured in numerous songs, including:

Books [edit]

References [edit]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. 
  2. ^ a b c Regier, Hilda. "Chelsea Hotel" in Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300055366. , p.210
  3. ^ Rovzar, Chris (14 Apr 2013). "Hotel Chelsea No Longer Taking Reservations". Retrieved 14 April 2013. 
  4. ^ Miller, Arthur, "The Chelsea Affect", Granta #78: "Bad Company", Summer 2002
  5. ^ a b c New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York:John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.70
  6. ^ Gobrecht, Lawrence E. (April 20, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Hotel Chelsea". Retrieved 2010-02-21.  and Accompanying three photos, exterior, from 1977
  7. ^ a b c White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0812931076. , p.181
  8. ^ a b c d Nevius, Michelle and Nevius, James. Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City. New York: Free Press, 2009. ISBN 141658997X p.151
  9. ^ a b Federal Writers' Project. (1939) New York City Guide. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-403-02921-X (Reprinted by Scholarly Press, 1976; often referred to as WPA Guide to New York City), p.153
  10. ^ Carmin, Craig (2011-05-16). "Hotel Chelsea's New Proprietor". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-08-21. 
  11. ^ Buckley, Cara (2011-07-31). "A Last Night Among the Spirits at the Chelsea Hotel". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-08-21. 
  12. ^ a b Kilgannon, Corey. "City Room: First, No More Guests; Now, Chelsea Hotel Says No More Art" New York Times (November 4, 2011)
  13. ^ Prendergast, Daniel and Connor, Tracy. "Chelsea Hotel demolition sparks Buildings Dept. probe after complaints from furious residents" New York Daily News (October 22, 2011)
  14. ^ "DOB finds no major violations in Hotel Chelsea renovation" The Real Deal (October 27, 2011)
  15. ^ a b c d Chemberlain, Lisa. "Change at the Chelsea, Shelter of the Arts", The New York Times, June 19, 2007. Accessed December 16, 2007. "For six decades the Bard family has managed the Hotel Chelsea, overseeing a bohemian enclave that has been a long-term home for writers, artists and musicians including Mark Twain, O. Henry, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Andy Warhol, and Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen."
  16. ^ a b "10 great places to get on the road and feel the Beat", USA Today, March 10, 2006. Accessed December 16, 2007. "On the West Side, Kerouac and then-wife Joan Haverty lived at 454 W. 20th St., where he began writing her a long letter about his recent travels while she waited tables to support them: The letter became On the Road, "the bible of the Beat generation." He wrote the book itself at the Hotel Chelsea, later the last home of Herbert Huncke."
  17. ^ Hamilton, Ed (2007). Legends of the Chelsea Hotel. p. 368. ISBN 1-56858-379-6. 
  18. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "Alphaeus Cole, a Portraitist, 112", The New York Times, November 26, 1988. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hotel Chelsea

http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/34754 Ed Hamilton: One of the last Chelsea Hotel Bohemians Interview with Doug Holder The Somerville News