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Hotel Chelsea

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Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea is located in New York City
Hotel Chelsea
Location222 West 23rd Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Area0.9 acres (0.36 ha)
Built1884
ArchitectHubert, Pirsson and Company
NRHP reference No.77000958[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 27, 1977

The Hotel Chelsea (or, Chelsea Hotel) is a New York City hotel and landmark, primarily known for its history of long-term residents. The Chelsea has housed numerous writers, musicians, artists, and actors, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Arthur C. Clarke, Dylan Thomas, Sid Vicious, Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Rivers, and multiple people associated with Andy Warhol's Factory. It is located in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Though the Chelsea no longer accepts long-term residencies, the building is still home to many (and a second home to many more). Transient guests are limited to a maximum stay of 24 nights.

History

The hotel has always been a center of artistic and bohemian activity and it houses artwork created by many of the artists who have visited. The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note. Source: Sam Rohn - 360 Degree Panoramic Photography

The twelve-story red-brick building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883, and opened in 1884 as one of the city's first private apartment cooperatives.[2] At the time, the Chelsea Hotel was the tallest building in New York, and its surrounding neighborhood was the center of New York's Theater District. However, within a few years the combination of economic worries and the relocation of the theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building reopened as a hotel (which was later managed by Knott Hotels and resident manager A. R. Walty). In 1946, Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard became partners in the hotel and managed the hotel together until the early 70's. With the passing of Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss, the management fell to Stanley Bard (son of David Bard).

Owing to its long list of famous guests and residents, the hotel has an ornate history, treasured both as a birth place of creative modern art and by tragedy catching the public eye. Sir Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Martin Matz chose it as a place for philosophical and intellectual exchange. It is also known as the place where the writer Dylan Thomas was staying when he died of alcohol poisoning 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.

Several survivors of the Titanic stayed for some time in this hotel as it is a short distance from Pier 54 where the Titanic was supposed to dock. The Chelsea was also home to many sailors returning from their duties in World War I.

The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[1][3]

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 renowned playwright and screenwriter Lonne Elder III) replaced Stanley Bard with management company BD Hotels NY, L.L.C., who have since been terminated. A few residents are fighting to return the Bards as managers to the Chelsea Hotel and have mounted a campaign of banners, pranks and other protests toward this end. The struggle to return the Bard family is documented daily by writer Ed Hamilton at Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog.

The hotel is also famous for its architecture and beautiful grand staircase, which reaches up twelve floors to the roof. The staircase is not accessible to tourists, only to registered guests, though the hotel does offer monthly tours.

Notable residents

Literary artists and thinkers

Art fills the staircase of the Hotel Chelsea

During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writers and thinkers including Mark Twain[2], O. Henry[2], Herbert Huncke[4], Dylan Thomas[2], Dale Beran, Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Arnold Weinstein, Leonard Cohen, John Patrick Kennedy, Arthur Miller, Quentin Crisp, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams[2], Allen Ginsberg, K. Charles Graham, Jack Kerouac (who wrote On the Road there)[4], Robert Hunter, Jack Gantos, Brendan Behan, Richard Collins, Simone de Beauvoir, Robert Oppenheimer, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bill Landis, Michelle Clifford, Thomas Wolfe, Charles Bukowski, Marty Matz, Raymond Kennedy, Matthew Richardson, Stephen Mooney, Jan Cremer, and René Ricard. Charles R. Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend, committed suicide in his room at the Chelsea on September 21, 1968. Dylan Thomas collapsed in Room 205 at the Chelsea on Nov 9th 1953 and died a few days later in hospital.[5]

Actors and film directors

The hotel has been a home to actors and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Shirley Clarke, Cyndi Coyne, Mitch Hedberg, Dave Hill, Miloš Forman, Lillie Langtry, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Eddie Izzard, Kevin O'Connor, Uma Thurman, Elliot Gould, Elaine Stritch, Jane Fonda, Gaby Hoffmann and her mother, the Warhol film star Viva, Melissa "Rocky" Matthers 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 The Grateful Dead, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Virgil Thomson, Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Henri Chopin, John Cale, Édith Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Marty Connolly, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Nadia marie Belvanson & the valentines, Canned Heat, Sid Vicious[2], Vivian Stanshall, Richard Hell, glam rocker Jobriath, Rufus Wainwright, Abdullah Ibrahim/Sathima Bea Benjamin, Indian musician Vasant Rai, and Leonard Cohen. More recently, artists such as Madonna, Falco, Ryan Adams, jAz jERicho, The Libertines, The Fuse (UK),Michael McDermott, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Anthony Kiedis have spent time at The Chelsea.

Visual artists

The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artists who have passed through. Larry Rivers, Robert M. Lambert, Brett Whiteley, Christo, Arman, Richard Bernstein, Francesco Clemente, Ching Ho Cheng, David Remfry, Philip Taaffe, Michele Zalopany, Ralph Gibson, Rene Shapshak, Robert Mapplethorpe, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Robert Crumb, Jasper Johns, Edie Sedgwick, Bernard Childs, Claes Oldenburg, Vali Myers, Donald Baechler, Herbert Gentry, Willem De Kooning, John Dahlberg, Lynne Drexler and Henri Cartier-Bresson have all spent time at Hotel Chelsea. Painter & ethnomusicologist Harry Everett Smith lived and died at the Chelsea in Room 328. The painter Alphaeus Philemon Cole lived there for 35 years until his death in 1988 at age 112, when he was the oldest living man.[6] Hanuman Books founder, editor & art curator Raymond Foye keeps residence here and has worked with many of the hotel's artists since the 1980s. Bohemian abstract and Pop art painter Susan Olmetti creates paintings outside on the sidewalk during her frequent summer residencies at the hotel. Surrealist painter Hawk Alfredson has multiple pieces on almost every one of the 10 floors and is the most visible of all resident artists.

Notable New Yorkers

New York nightlife superstar Susanne Bartsch has lived in the Chelsea Hotel for over 20 years.

Chandra Om - Famous yoga teacher lived in the Chelsea from 1990-1992.

Fashion designers

Charles James: Amongst the ranks of the legendary couturiers of the 20th Century who influenced fashion in the 1940s and 50s—a man also credited with being America's first couturier. In 1964 he moved into the Chelsea Hotel in New York. James died of pneumonia at the Chelsea Hotel in 1978.

New York nightlife regular, fashion designer extraordinaire, and Chelsea resident Zaldy designed the shroud for Michael Jackson's coffin. The designer, also known for his work with the Scissor Sisters, was Jackson’s chief costume designer for the London "This Is It" show.

Warhol superstars

A standard room for rent at the Hotel Chelsea

Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Andy Warhol Superstars, as he 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, Larry Rivers, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov, Holly Woodlawn, Andrea Feldman, Nico, Paul America, and Brigid Berlin. Valerie Solanas, the would-be assassin of Andy Warhol, visited the hotel on that very day looking for editor Maurice Girodias, possibly to make an attempt on his life shortly before she shot Warhol at The Factory at 33 Union Square, a brief walk from the hotel. In his memoir of the period he spent living at the Chelsea, Arthur Miller mistakenly recalled Solanas shooting Warhol in the hotel lobby.

Explorers

Ruth Harkness, an adventuress/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.

Films

The hotel featured in

Much of an episode of the 1973 PBS reality television series An American Family was filmed at the Hotel Chelsea, as family member Lance Loud was staying there at the time, and a version of the opera Aida was supposedly filmed there with live lions.

Music

The hotel is also featured in numerous songs, including:

  • "Sara" by Bob Dylan, which refers to "Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you".
  • "Chelsea Calling" by Ezekiel Butler
  • "Lolita" by Elefant (band), whose music video depicts frontman Diego Garcia in a videotaped romp at the Chelsea Hotel
  • "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell (Chelsea Clinton is named after the song and, by extension, the hotel)
  • "Troubled Notes from the Hotel Chelsea" by Joe Myers and Casebeer was recorded while the artist couple were living in the Chelsea prior to 9-11
  • "Sex with Sun-Ra (Part I - Saturnalia)" by Coil (the song's non-sequitur final line)
  • "Chelsea Hotel" by Dan Bern
  • "Dear Abbey" by Kinky Friedman
  • "White China" by Fever Marlene (the band wrote and recorded their entire second album over a four night stay in room 219)
  • "Chelsea Burns" and "Song to Alice" by Keren Ann
  • "Chelsea Girl" by Nico
  • "Midnight in Chelsea" by Jon Bon Jovi (the hotel is featured in the song's video, but the song itself is about the London neighborhood of the same name)
  • "Ghosts" by Lisa Bastoni
  • "Hi-Fi Popcorn" by The Revs
  • "Why Should I Worry" by Billy Joel from the Oliver and Company Soundtrack... the line is "they love me at the Chelsea they adore me at the Ritz"
  • "The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" by Jeffrey Lewis (references Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2")
  • "Chelsea Lovers" by Dave Stewart
  • "Third Week in the Chelsea" by Jefferson Airplane, in which guitarist Jorma Kaukonen details the thoughts he is having about leaving the band.
  • "We Will Fall" by The Stooges
  • "Edie (Ciao Baby)" by The Cult
  • "Crow" by Jim Carroll Band
  • "Like a Drug I Never Did Before" by Joey Ramone of The Ramones
  • "Godspeed" by Anberlin
  • "Twenty-third Street" by Bill Morrissey
  • "Visions of Kody" by Visions of Cody
  • "Chelsea Avenue" by Patti Scialfa, on her album 23rd Street Lullaby
  • "Chelsea Hotel #2" by Leonard Cohen in which the singer remembers a former lover. He implied it was Janis Joplin but later in a 1994 broadcast on the BBC, Cohen said it was "an indiscretion for which I'm very sorry, and if there is some way of apologising to the ghost, I want to apologise now, for having committed that indiscretion."
  • "Chelsea" by Counting Crows, hidden track on Across a Wire: Live in New York City
  • "Hotel Chelsea Nights" by Ryan Adams
  • "City Rain, City Streets" by Ryan Adams
  • "Chelsea Hotel" by Carissa's Wierd
  • Most of the songs on Rufus Wainwright's second album Poses were written during his stay at the Chelsea Hotel in the summer of 1999.
  • Natalie Merchant's music video for her single "Break Your Heart" was filmed in the Chelsea Hotel.
  • "Chelsea Hotel '78" by Alejandro Escovedo
  • "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979" by Okkervil River
  • Kim Wilde filmed her video for This I Swear in the hotel in 1995.
  • Dave Gahan's video for "Saw Something" takes place in the hotel. The partner of Sid Vicious, who was one of Gahan's idols in the 1970s, was murdered in the hotel.
  • "Streams of Whiskey" by The Pogues refers to Brendan Behan's intention to stay at the Chelsea.
  • "Bear" by Brooklyn indie rock group The Antlers, which talks about a couple's unexpected pregnancy and its planned abortion. "We'll play charades up in the Chelsea, drink champagne, although you shouldn't be."
  • "Rock N Roll Massacre" by Vice Squad ends with the line "Remember the CHELSEA HOTEL"

The hotel is possibly indirectly referenced in the Grateful Dead song "Stella Blue" (1970) by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia. Hunter was staying in the hotel when he wrote the song's lyrics, which contain the line, "I've stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel." The meaning of "blue-light" in this context has proven elusive.[7]

The Libertines recorded either some or all of the Babyshambles Sessions while staying at the Chelsea Hotel in 2003 (there are conflicting reports as to exactly which songs were recorded at the hotel itself)[8]. Frontman Pete Doherty gave away the entire sessions (featuring over 40 brand new separate recordings) to a fan who he met in the foyer of the hotel, after requesting on a messageboard for someone to help him put them on the internet for free.

DHT features the hotel in their music video cover of "Listen To Your Heart".

Books

  • Hotel Chelsea
    Hotel Chelsea
  • Hotel Chelsea sign
    Hotel Chelsea sign
  • A Junior Suite
    A Junior Suite
  • A One Bedroom Suite
    A One Bedroom Suite
  • The Hotel Chelsea Lobby
    The Hotel Chelsea Lobby

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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."
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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 home of the so-called unsung Beat, Herbert Huncke."
  5. ^ Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?by D N Thomas, Seren, 2008
  6. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "Alphaeus Cole, a Portraitist, 112", The New York Times, November 26, 1988. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  7. ^ The Annotated "Stella Blue"
  8. ^ "01.jpg". thelibertines.de. June 5, 2003. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
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