The Hotel Chelsea – also called the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea –
is a historic New York City hotel and landmark built between 1883 and 1885,
known primarily for the notability of its residents over the years. The
250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth
Avenues, in the neighborhood of Chelsea, Manhattan. The building has been a
designated New York City landmark since 1966, and on the National Register of
Historic Places since 1977. It has been the home of numerous
writers, musicians, artists and actors, including Bob Dylan, Virgil Thomson,
Brigid Berlin, Brendan Behan, Sam Shepard, Charles Bukowski, Janis Joplin,
Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Viva, Gaby Hoffmann, Jim
Carroll, Jobriath, and Larry Rivers. Though the Chelsea no longer accepts new
long-term residencies, the building is still home to many who lived there
before the change in policy. As of August 1, 2011, the hotel is closed for
renovations. 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 artistic 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 Hotel Chelsea in the early
1960s. History
Built between 1883 and 1885 and opened for initial occupation in 1884, the
twelve-story red-brick building that is now the Hotel Chelsea was one of the
city's first private apartment cooperatives. It was designed by Philip
Hubert of the firm of Hubert, Pirsson & Company in a style that has been
described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic. Among its
distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its
facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M. Cornell 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. 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. The success of this model led to other "Hubert Home Clubs",
and the Chelsea was one of them. Initially successful, its surrounding
neighborhood constituted the center of New York's theater district. 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.
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, 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.
As of August 1, 2011, the hotel stopped taking reservations for guests in order
to begin renovations, but long-time residents remain in the building, some
of them protected by state rent regulations. The renovations prompted
complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the
construction. These were investigated by the city's Building Department, which
found no major violations. 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. In 2013, Ed Scheetz became the Chelsea Hotel's new
owner after buying back five properties from Joseph Chetrit, his partner in King
& Grove Hotels, and David Bistricer. Hotel Chelsea is now managed by Chelsea
Hotels, formerly King & Grove Hotels. Restoration and renovation is underway
and Hotel Chelsea plans to reopen in 2016.
Notable residents = Literary artists=
During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writers
and thinkers including Mark Twain, O. Henry, Herbert Huncke, Dylan Thomas,
Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Arnold Weinstein, Leonard
Cohen, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Arthur Miller, Quentin Crisp, Gore Vidal,
Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, 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, Rene Ricard and Brad Gooch.
Charles R. Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend, committed suicide in his room
on September 21, 1968. = Actors and film directors=
The hotel has been a home to actors and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick,
Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Hal Miller, 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, Howard
Brookner, Michael Imperioli, Jane Fonda, Russell Brand, Gaby Hoffmann and her
mother, the Warhol film star Viva, and Edie Sedgwick.
= Musicians= 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, Mink DeVille, Phil Lynott,
Paul Jones, Cher, Henri Chopin, John Cale, Édith Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Bob
Dylan, Alice Cooper, Alejandro Escovedo, Janis Joplin, Bette Midler, Pink Floyd,
Jimi Hendrix, Peter Walker, Canned Heat, Sid Vicious, J.D. Stooks, Vivian
Stanshall, Richard Hell, Jobriath Boone, Little Annie, Lotti Golden, 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. Musician, gay civil rights icon and Stonewall veteran
Stormé DeLarverie resided at the hotel for several decades. Falco, Ryan Adams,
The Libertines, The Fuse, Michael McDermott, Melissa Auf der Maur, Tim
Freedman, and Anthony Kiedis have spent time at The Chelsea. 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. The video for Dave Gahan's solo single
"Saw Something" was filmed in the hotel. = Visual artists=
The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artists who have
passed through. Robert Blackburn, Doris Chase, 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, Loïc Dorez, Jasper Johns, Edie Sedgwick, Claes Oldenburg, Vali
Myers, Donald Baechler, Herbert Gentry, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mapplethorpe,
Lynne Drexler, Moses Soyer, Nora Sumberg, and Henri Cartier-Bresson have
all spent time at the hotel. Experimental filmmaker 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. = Fashion designers=
Charles James, credited with being America's first couturier who influenced
fashion in the 1940s and 1950s, moved into the Chelsea in 1964. He died there
of pneumonia in 1978. = Warhol superstars=
Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars, as Andy Warhol
and Paul Morrissey directed Chelsea Girls, 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= New York event promoter Susanne Bartsch
lives at the Chelsea Hotel. The French-Chinese event planner and
consultant in the fashion industry, Man-Laï Liang has been residing in the
Chelsea since the 80s. 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.
Brendan Behan, Irish playwright, whose plays, such as The Quare Fellow, The
Hostage, and The Borstal Boy ran on Broadway, stayed at the Chelsea for
eight months at the invitation of manager Stanley Bard. Writer, investor,
and entrepreneur James Altucher lived at the hotel in the mid-1990s.
In popular culture = Films and television=
The hotel has been featured in: = Music=
The hotel is also featured in numerous songs, including:
= Books= References
External links Chelsea Hotel – New York Architecture
Images 360° Panoramas of Chelsea Hotel before
2011–2012 renovations Chelsea's New Proprietor – Wall Street
Journal "Ed Hamilton: One of the last Chelsea
Hotel Bohemians". The Somerville News. January 30, 2013.