1. History

2. Notable residents
    Literary artists  Actors and film directors  Musicians  Visual artists  Fashion designers  Warhol  Others 

3. In popular culture
    Films and television  Music  Books 

4. References

5. External links

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^[2] 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,^[3] and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977.^[1][2]

It has been the home of numerous writers, musicians, artists and actors. 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. Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while staying at the Chelsea,^[3] and poets Allen Ginsberg^[7] 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 in room 205 when he became ill and died several days later, in a local hospital, of pneumonia on November 9, 1953,^[3][7] and where Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978.^[3][7] Arthur Miller wrote a short piece, "The Chelsea Affect", describing life at Hotel Chelsea in the early 1960s.^[4]

As of August 1, 2011, the hotel closed for renovations. It is to reopen in 2019.^[5][6][7]

History

Built between 1884 and 1885 and opened for initial occupation in 1884,^[8][9] the twelve-story red-brick building that is now the Hotel Chelsea was one of the city's first private apartment cooperatives.^[10] It was designed by Philip Hubert^[11] of the firm of Hubert, Pirrson & Company in a style that has been described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic.^[9] Among its distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M. Cornell^[8][9] 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.^[12]

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.^[11] The success of this model led to other "Hubert Home Clubs", and the Chelsea was one of them.^[11] Initially successful, its surrounding neighborhood constituted the center of New York's theater district.^[13] 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.^[11][13]

The building reopened as a hotel in 1905, 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,^[10] 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 (1934–2017),^[14] 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.^[15]

Located in the Chelsea since 1930 is the restaurant El Quijote which was owned by the same family until 2017 when it was sold to the new owner of the hotel. In late March 2018 the eatery also closed for renovations.^[23]

Notable residents

Literary artists

During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many famous writers and thinkers including Mark Twain,^[24] O. Henry,^[24] Herbert Huncke,^[25] Dylan Thomas,^[7][24] Arthur C. Clarke,^[3] Sam Shepard,^[48] Arthur Miller,^[3][7] Tennessee Williams,^[24] Jack Kerouac,^[25] Brendan Behan,^[48] Thomas Wolfe,^[26] Valerie Solanas,^[26] William S. Burroughs,^[27] Allen Ginsberg,^[27] Gregory Corso,^[28] Arnold Weinstein,^[29]

Actors and film directors

The hotel has been a home to actors and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Shirley Clarke, Mitch Hedberg, Dave Hill, Miloš Forman, Lillie Langtry, Ethan Hawke,^[26] Dennis Hopper, Squat Theatre Company, Eddie Izzard, Uma Thurman, Elliott Gould, Elaine Stritch, Michael Imperioli, Jane Fonda, Russell Brand, the Warhol film star Viva and her daughter Gaby Hoffmann, and Edie Sedgwick.^{[27] [26]}

Musicians

Much of the Hotel Chelsea's history has been colored by the musicians who have resided or visited there. Some of the most prominent names include the Grateful Dead, Nico, Tom Waits, Patti Smith,^[3][27] Jim Morrison,^[3] Iggy Pop, Alejandro Escovedo, Virgil Thomson, Chick Corea, Jeff Beck, Dee Dee Ramone,^[26] Johnny Thunders, Mink DeVille, Marianne Faithfull,^[26] Cher, John Cale, Édith Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan,^[3][27] Robbie Robertson,^[31] Alice Cooper, Bette Midler, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat, Sid Vicious, Richard Barone, and Rufus Wainwright.^[26] Madonna lived at the Chelsea in the early 1980s, returning in 1992 to shoot photographs for her book, Sex, in room 822.^[32] Leonard Cohen, who lived in room 424, and Janis Joplin, in room 411, had an affair there in 1968, and Cohen later wrote two songs about it, "Chelsea Hotel" and "Chelsea Hotel #2".^[27][33] Jobriath spent his last years in the pyramid-topped apartment on the Chelsea's rooftop where he died from AIDS in August 1983.^[34] The Kills wrote much of their album No Wow at the Chelsea presumably between the years 2003 to 2005.^[35]

Visual artists

The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artists who have passed through. Doris Chase, Bernard Childs, Claudio Edinger, Brett Whiteley, Ching Ho Cheng, Larry Rivers and from 1961 to 1970 several of his French nouveau réalistes friends like Yves Klein (who wrote his Manifeste de l'hôtel Chelsea there in April 1961),^[27] Arman, Martial Raysse, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Christo, Daniel Spoerri or Alain Jacquet (who left a version of his Déjeuner sur l'herbe from 1964 in the hotel lobby featuring other pieces by Larry Rivers or Arman),^[36] Francesco Clemente,^[26] Julian Schnabel,^[26] Joe Andoe,^[37] David Remfry,^[38] Diego Rivera, Robert Crumb, Ellen Cantor, Jasper Johns, Tom Wesselmann, Claes Oldenburg, Herbert Gentry, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mapplethorpe (room 1017, with Patti Smith),^[27] Moses Soyer (who died there in 1974), 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, aged 112, at which point he was the oldest verified man alive.^[39] The sculptor René Shapshak and his wife lived here;^[40] his bust of Harry Truman and reliefs were in the lobby.^[41]

Fashion designers

Warhol

Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars, as Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey directed Chelsea Girls (1966), a film about his Factory regulars and their lives at the hotel.

Others

Several survivors of the {{RMS|Titanic|3=2}} 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.

In popular culture

Films and television

The hotel has been featured in:

• Chelsea Girls (1966), by Andy Warhol, was shot at the Chelsea.^[26]
• Portrait of Jason (1967), by Shirley Clarke, was shot at the Chelsea.^[43][44]
• An American Family (1973, PBS) – an episode of the pioneering reality TV series was mostly filmed at the Chelsea.
• Arena (1981) – the popular BBC arts documentary series featured an episode, "Chelsea Hotel".
• Sid and Nancy (1986), by Alex Cox.
• Some scenes in Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)—which, like Sid and Nancy, stars Gary Oldman—were filmed and are set in the Chelsea.
• Part of The Professional (1994), by Luc Besson, was shot there, although it was set in an apartment block.
• Midnight in Chelsea (1997), directed by Mark Pellington, a video to a track from the 1997 Jon Bon Jovi solo album Destination Anywhere.
• Chelsea Walls (2001), directed by Ethan Hawke, a movie about a new generation of artists living at the hotel.
• Chelsea on the Rocks (2008), a documentary film directed by Abel Ferrara.^[45]
• Hotel Chelsea (2009), a horror film about a Japanese couple staying at the hotel.

Music

The hotel is featured in many songs, including:

• "Sara" by Bob Dylan^[27]
• "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell
• "Chelsea Hotel #2" by Leonard Cohen, later covered by various artists
• "Midnight in Chelsea" by Bon Jovi
• "Chelsea Hotel '78" by Alejandro Escovedo
• "Chelsea Girl" by Nico
• "Hotel Chelsea Nights" by Ryan Adams
• "Dear Abbey" by Kinky Friedman
• "Like a Drug I Never Did Before" by Joey Ramone^[46]
• "The Chelsea Hotel" by Graham Nash
• "Third Week in the Chelsea" by Jefferson Airplane
• "Chelsea Hotel" on Meshell Ndegeocello's 2011 album Weather
• "Chelsea" by Phoebe Bridgers
• "Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" by Jeffrey Lewis

Books

• {{cite book|title=Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws at New York's Rebel Mecca|first=Ed|last=Hamilton|isbn=978-1-56858-379-2}}
• {{cite book|title=This Ain't No Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980–1995|first=James|last=Lough |isbn=1936182521}}
• {{cite book|title=Chelsea Horror Hotel: A Novel|authorlink=Dee Dee Ramone|last=Ramone|first=Dee Dee|isbn=1-56025-304-5}}
• {{cite book|first=Sherill|last=Tippins|date=2013|title=Inside the Dream Palace: the Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea Hotel|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0743295617}}
• {{cite book|title=At The Chelsea|first=Florence|last=Turner|isbn=978-0151097807}}
• {{cite book|title=Chelsea Hotel, een Biografie van een Hotel|language=Dutch|first=Jeroen|last=Wielaert|isbn=90-76927-02-2}}
• Rips, Nicolaia. Trying To Float; Coming of Age in the Chelsea Hotel. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-5011-3298-8}}.

References

External links

• Chelsea Hotel – New York Architecture images
• 360° Panoramas of Chelsea Hotel before 2011–2012 renovations
• {{cite news|url=http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/34754|title=Ed Hamilton: One of the last Chelsea Hotel Bohemians|newspaper=The Somerville News|date=January 30, 2013}}

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